Gramilar Venereal Disease of Cows 1099 



mals inspected by him, 120 had to be abandoned for breeding, 

 because of vaginal discharge, sterility or repeated abortion. 



Ostertag recommends that the disease be handled by the official 

 veterinarians, and quarantine be maintained against the intro- 

 duction of diseased animals into health}' herds. His cultures 

 from the closed uterine cavity were pure. The extension of the 

 infection into the uterine cavity is significant. The fact prob- 

 ably has a definite relation to the induction of abortion and 

 sterility. Abortion, retained after birth and pyometra are per- 

 haps referable directly or indirectly to the invasion of the uterine 

 cavity by the organisms. Others have recognized the organisms 

 in the degenerated ovaries. These facts or assumptions exert 

 an influence upon the prognosis of the malady. 



The experiments of Ostertag and others indicate that the period 

 of incubation is very short, 2-5 days, and that sometimes irrita- 

 tation is evident within 24 hours. 



The granular elevations in the mucosa are due to swelling of 

 the lymph follicles in the vulvar mucosa. They are most promi- 

 nent in heifers. 



The complications and sequelae of granular venereal disease 

 are diverse and important. 



Abortion. European authors are practically unanimous in 

 regarding it as the cause of much of the abortion in cows. Some 

 regard the disease as identical with " contagious abortion", while 

 most observers regard it as wholly distinct, nevertheless highly 

 important as a cause of abortion. Many have observed 20, 50, 

 70, and 80% of abortions for one, two or more successive years. 

 In other affected herds, the disease exists for several years with- 

 out the occurrence of abortion. In America we have no data 

 available upon the question, beyond the observations related 

 above. In numerous herds, where the disease exists in a mild 

 form, no history of prior abortions can be obtained. We have 

 no positive data how long the disease has existed in any one 

 herd, but its wide dissemination, its presence in well nigh every 

 herd in the regions inspected, indicate that it is not new. In our 

 observations, ^o'/( of abortions appears to represent the maxi- 

 mum. It is not rare in the dairying districts of this state for 

 80% to 90% or more of the pregnant cows to abort, but we have 

 not, in the brief time elapsing since the recognition of the malady, 

 had opportunity to determine the presence or absence of the 



