766 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



compounds have given encouraging results experimentally, 

 but it is a question whether the treated animals are so far 

 recovered that they are without menace. In the Illinois 

 outbreak several mares apparently made quite complete re- 

 coveries and performed satisfactory work, but it was deemed 

 essential to keep them under close breeding quarantine with 

 the constant danger that, by accident or design, coitus might 

 be permitted to occur and a fresh outbreak be started. On 

 the whole, it is more economical that the state should as- 

 sume the burden and destroy all affected animals. Until 

 reliable diagnosis has been made, breeding should be sus- 

 pended and all suspects placed under quarantine restrictions 

 ample to prevent sexual contact. This means a quite rigid 

 quarantine, frequently extending over a long period. The 

 disease is entirely too insidious and dangerous to justify lax 

 provisions. The castration of suspected animals has been 

 advocated, but this is not safe against error. A castrated 

 stallion may copulate with mares. I have known a castrated 

 mare to be forced into coitus with the stallion ; the owner, 

 unaware that a prior owner had had her castrated, believed 

 her in estrum. If a quarantine can be so arranged that it 

 will fully protect the public interest and not prove an eco- 

 nomic burden, the apparently recovered animal is efficient 

 as a worker and, aside from coitus, is without known danger. 



B. Genital Horse Pox. Coital Exanthem 



Eruptive Venereal Disease of the Horse 



Genital horse pox is a highly contagious disease, which, 

 under ordinary conditions, is transmitted by coition only 

 and consists of a local infection of the genital organs. It is 

 far more readily transmitted than dourine and has a shorter 

 period of incubation. 



Symptoms. After a period of two to five days subsequent 

 to exposure, there appears in the mare an inflammation of 

 the mucous membrane of the vulva and vagina, in which 

 there arise small reddish papules, which soon become vesi- 

 cular <>!• pustular and rupture, leaving small erosions on the 

 mucosa. From the vulva there occurs a more or less cop- 



