

TAPE-WORM DISEASE OF SHEEP OF THE WESTERN PLAINS. 



SIR: I have the honor to submit the accompanying report, giving the results of 

 my investigations of the tape- worm disease prevailing among sheep of the Western 

 plains. 



Though far from complete, it presents all that is certainly known of this disease 

 and its parasite up to this date. In my investigations I have been aided and en- 

 couraged by many kind and interested ranchmen. To Mrs. Mary L. Givens, of 

 Colorado Springs, Colo., who placed facilities and animals at my disposition, especial 

 thanks are due. Recognition is also due to Messrs. Wilder, Noble, Pebbles, Buz- 

 zard, Greenleaf, and Holt, of El Paso County, Colo., for kind assistance. 



Hoping in the future to be able to submit a more complete report on this and other 

 parasitic diseases, I remain, 

 Very respectfully, 



COOPER CURTICE, D.V.S.,M.D. 

 Hon. NORMAN J. COLMAN, 



Commissioner of Agriculture. 



THE TAPE- WORM DISEASE OF SHEEP. 



Tape-worms in Colorado sheep were noticed by ranchmen in the 

 early days of ranching, but did not attract the notice of veterina- 

 rians until 1883-' 84, when Dr. Faville, of the Colorado State Agri- 

 cultural College, first directed attention to them. (Report Veterinary 

 Department of Colorado State Agricultural College, January, 1885.) 

 An earlier epizootic, due to tape-worms, had been reported to Mr. 

 Stewart, who, in the National Live-Stock Journal for September, 

 1875, records their presence in Missouri sheep, and from specimens 

 at hand determined them as Tc&nia, plicata. As this tsenia does not 

 occur in sheep but in horses, it is quite likely that Mr. Stewart saw T. 

 fimbriata. 



In a recent letter to the Department of Agriculture the late Hon. 

 J. M. Givens reiterates an opinion formerly expressed by him in local 

 societies of wool-growers, and published by him in Denver (Colo.) 

 papers of 1883-'84, that these tape-worms were a cause of the larger 

 part of the losses among sheep, and urged the necessity of a closer 

 study of the subject in order that more might be learned of the par- 

 asite, the amount of loss it caused, and the means of preventing it. 

 These losses had previously been attributed to a weed called (i loco/' 

 which the sheep ate. 



In obedience to instructions received from the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture, the writer proceeded to Colorado in August, 1886, and 

 began a study of the various intestinal parasites of sheep. The 

 studies of that year were pursued, by invitation, on the ranch of 



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