326 VETERINARY HYGIENE 



PREVENTIVE MEASURES. So far as can be said at present, the 

 only satisfactory way in which the disease can be eradicated appears 

 to be by the sale of the whole flock and re-stocking. Even so it 

 is difficult to ensure that one is re-stocking with clean animals. 

 Other measures are likely to fail since the disease cannot be 

 diagnosed in individual animals in early stages. In some cases 

 it may be possible to gradually replace the affected stock with 

 healthy animals by keeping flocks separate. It is necessary to 

 avoid using tups from the infected flocks among clean animals 

 as Stockman has collected a good deal of evidence to show that 

 tups may disseminate infection by copulation. Affected sheep 

 should be at once slaughtered as they may then be used for food. 



BRAXY. 



Braxy (bradsot) has been frequently confounded in the past 

 with black-quarter and anthrax. It is a very acute and rapidly 

 fatal disease affecting sheep in many parts of the world, e.g., 

 Scotland, Iceland, Norway and Denmark, Germany, &c. It has 

 been enzootic in Scotland since early times, though certain districts 

 (Aberdeenshire and Forfarshire) are said to be free. 



There has been a good deal of controversy regarding the 

 etiology of the disease, and at the time of writing this still remains 

 obscure. According to many observers (Hamilton, Jensen, Gilruth) 

 braxy is caused by an anaerobic organism which was first 

 described by Nielson in 1888, and which resembles in some respects 

 the black-quarter bacillus. It is to be found in the lesions which 

 are said to be constantly present in the abomasum. The disease 

 cannot be transmitted to healthy sheep by feeding with cultures 

 of this organism or with material obtained from dead sheep. In 

 consequence of this and also for other reasons Titze and Weichel, 

 Miessner, Dodd and others deny that the so-called braxy or bradsot 

 bacillus is the real cause, stating that it is merely a post-mortem 

 invader. According to Hamilton the disease is especially prevalent 

 in late autumn and winter, and first year's animals are more liable 

 than adults, but it is rare before weaning. Until more definite 

 information is to hand regarding this disease, it is difficult to formu- 

 late measures to be adopted with a view to prophylaxis. 



LOUPING-ILL. 



Louping-Ill (trembling) is a disease affecting sheep in Scotland 

 and north of England. It is a non-febrile or only slightly febrile 



