ACTINOMYCOSIS IN THE BLACK iMOUNTAIN 



SHEEP. 



By W. REID BLAIR. DA'.S. 



OUITE recently, while examining several specimens of horned 

 game which had been received from the Northwest by Mr. 

 Fred. Sauter. taxidermist, of 42 Bleecker Street, Xew York, Direc- 

 tor Hornaday's attention was called by Air. Fred. Sauter, Jr., to a 

 strange disease that was manifest in several fresh heads of moun- 

 tain sheep. In a lot containing the heads of six black mountain 

 sheep rams. {Oins sfojiei), from the Stickine River country, 

 northern British Columbia, the lower jaws of three revealed the 

 presence of actinomycosis, or "lumpy-jaw," in a severe and far 

 advanced stage. Two cases w^ere particularly severe, and the 

 jaws affected were at once placed by j\Ir. Sauter at our disposal. 



The specimens referred to above were shot by 'Sir. Charles A. 

 Cass, of Tyrone, Pa., "north of the Stickine River, and also 

 north of the Sheslay, not far from a lake called Tach-sa-min-e." 



The presence of this dread disease in wild animals far removed 

 from contact with domestic ruminant animals of any kind from 

 which it might have been acquired is very startling. The com- 

 plete isolation of the black mountain sheep of the Stickine coun- 

 try from all domestic cattle, sheep, prong-horn antelopes, deer, and 

 all other animals hitherto known to be infected by lumpy-jaw, 

 forces upon us the conclusion, that in this instance it has developed 

 independently of infection from domestic animals. 



It is to be hoped that all the Oris stonei now afflicted by this 

 deadly disease will be killed bv sportsmen before thev have time 

 to communicate it to all the hoofed animals of their region, and 

 especially to the animals of their own species on the south side of 

 the Stickine River. The result of this newly found menace to a 

 very important and interesting wild animal will be watched with 

 keen, and even painful, interest. It is entirely possible that we 

 will witness within a few years the extermination of a large and 

 vigorous species by natural causes. 



Actinomycosis is a chronic infective disease which occurs in 

 cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses, and occasionally is met with in 



