276 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



necrophoriis causing serious necrotic sores wiiich break down not only 

 the soft tissue and nerves but even attack the bones. It seems probable 

 that this and more recent outbreaks in the Modoc region were caused 

 by mechanical mouth injuries sustained while the deer were browsing 

 excessively on sharp spines of snow brush, becoming infected with 

 Actinomyces necrophorus through drinking stagnant water at the reser- 

 voirs where hundreds of sheep and cattle watered. 



In this same region, as at Happy Camp, where there were perma- 

 nent secluded springs where the deer watered, I found no dead or 

 diseased deer and no signs of the infection. It was found that at 

 Hackamore Reservoir and at Lower Mud Lake when the snow came and 

 the deer spread out and left the polluted reservoirs the disease soon 

 disappeared. It is therefore suggested that in the future at the first 

 outbreak such reservoirs be thoroughly fenced against deer so that they 



Fig. 105. A close examination of the teeth of this dead 4-point buck showed 

 extensive pus areas at the base of the back upper molar teeth. Recent investiga- 

 tions indicate that these necrotic sores were caused by infection of mouth sores by 

 an. organism called Actinomyces necrophorus. Hackamore Reservoir, Modoc 

 County, California, September 24, 1924. Mus. Vert. Zool. No. 4556. 



will be forced to leave the vicinity instead of remaining until they 

 perish. 



FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE 



For a full account of the 1924 outbreak of this disease the reader 

 is referred to The Epizootic of Foot and Mouth Disease in California 

 by Dr. Charles Keane, California Department of Agriculture, Special 

 Publication No. 65, 1926. Keane (p. 7) states that "prior to the Cali- 

 fornia outbreak foot-and-mouth disease had gained entrance into the 

 United States on six occasions." The outbreak in California extended 

 from February 17, 1924, until June 10, 1926. The presence of this 

 disease among California mule deer on the Stanislaus National Forest 



