ADJ)]:X])L'M. 



Infectious Abortion. 



So much attention has been recently duected to this important subject, 

 because of its increasing prevalence and the heavy losses it occasions 

 among breeding stock, that it has been considered necessary to add some 

 information which has come to hand since the sheets (pp. -!lG-22()) 

 dealing with it were printed oil". 



There can be no doubt that in those instances in which abortions 

 occur on an extensive scale, so as to assume an enzootic or epizootic 

 character, and to continue in certain localities or establishments for 

 years, infection is the chief, if not the only cause ; the agencies usually 

 supposed to operate in their productions merely acting as predisposants, 

 Ijy weakening the constitution. 



In addition to the authorities mentioned as having proved the 



xistence of an infecting agent in the genital discharges, Lehnert' must 

 he alluded to as having induced abortion in Cows at the end of twelve 

 ;ind twenty days, by introducing into the vagina of pregnant Cows 

 mucus from that of animals which had aborted accidentally; while 

 Trinchera- has produced a vaginal catarrh and abortion in from nine to 

 thirteen days, by inoculating the purulent vaginal discharge from a Cow 

 just aborted, and the matter obtained by scraping the surface of the 

 chorion e.xpelled by another which had likewise met with the same 

 accident. 



It is now recognised by the most competent veterinary authorities 

 that the disease — for so it must be considered — is eminently infectious 

 or contagious, and that it may be transmitted either directly, or through 

 the intervention of certain media — as infected urine, fteces, or litter, 

 tiy attendants on the animals which luive aborted, by the veterinary 



hstetrist who has recently removed the placental membranes from an 

 i!iimal that has aborted, or even by the male animal in the act of 

 ' 'pulation. Whether the infecting agent produces its elTect if it obtains 



Imission through the respiratory, digestive, or circulatory organs is 



>t yet ascertained ; but there is every probability that it finds access to 

 i'AO interior of the uterus through the vagina and cervix, as in parturient 

 fever, and developing in the fcetal envelopes, produces alterations there 

 sufticient to kill the fcetus without affecting to any considerable extent 

 the health of the female. This occurs after each conception ; so that 

 repeated abortions eventually lead to sterility by causing the uterine 

 mucus to become acid — a change which is fatal to the spermatozoa. 



Galtier ■ is of opinion that though the disease chiefly affects the Bovine 

 species, yet it is transmissible to other domestic species, and offers 



' Sdch-^fti Jahrcibrricht, 1878. 



' La Clinica Vtlerinaria, 1888. 



' Journal de Midtciiu ViUrinairt de Lyoni, 1890. 



