CHAPTER VIII. 

 ABORTION IN COWS. 



Professor Axe says : " Isolated cases of abortion are ever occurring 

 here and there in various parts of the country at different times, 

 without any casual connection whatever one with the other. Cases of 

 this description are usually the result of accident, and in their widely 

 scattered and disconnected existence we recognise the disorder in 

 what is known as the sporadic form. On other occasions it is met 

 with under entirely different circumstances. It may, for example, ap- 

 pear and run through the whole or part of a particular herd, or in 

 several centres in a particular locality, without ever extending itself 

 beyond a certain more or less well denned area. In such outbreaks 

 case succeeds case at varying intervals of days, weeks, or months until 

 the greater number, or all the pregnant cows in the invaded part have 

 aborted. When the malady comports itself in this destructive manner 

 it is described as enzootic, and may be regarded as having its origin 

 in some condition peculiar to the farm or district in which it appears. 



Examples of this local prevalence are frequently found in low-lying 

 districts, where ergotized grasses are wont to abound, and operate 

 on many or all the cows alike that may have access to them. Where 

 the disease pervades different districts, and, as oftentimes occurs, 

 spreads widely over a district without regard to physical conforma- 

 tion, geological formation, or climatic influences, seizing large num- 

 bers of cows at or about the same time, regardless of age, condition, 

 or management, the disorder is then expressed by the term epizootic 

 abortion, and is assumed to have its origin in some cause operating 

 throughout the district, and, probably, at times influencing all preg- 

 nant animals to a greater or less extent particularly the cow. 



All animals, both wild and domesticated, are liable to abort at any 

 period of gestation. This liability, however, differs very considerably 

 in different species. Of our domesticated creatures the cow is pre- 

 eminently susceptible, and appears to be influenced by causes to which 

 the mare and all other of pur domesticated animals show an open in- 

 difference. On what special influence this exalted tendency to abort 

 depends, is a most important question, and at the same time one 

 not easily answered. Having regard to the vast losses sustained by 

 agriculturists year by year, and the manifest increasing prevalence of 

 the disorder, it behoves owners of stock no less than veterinarians to 

 lend their aid in bringing about a better understanding of the causes 

 on which this difference rests. 



It is important to bear in mind that in a wild and natural state abor- 

 tion in cows, and indeed other descriptions of stock, is of rare 

 occurrence, excepting as the result of violence or accidental condi- 

 tions. Moreover, its accidental occurrence in one animal is seldom 

 followed by the disastrous spreading consequences so common in our 

 more refined herds. When considered in reference to the causation 

 of abortion these facts are of the highest importance in directing in- 

 jury, nor can it be overlooked that their tendency is to challenge the 

 artificial refinements of breeding, feeding, and general management 

 under domestication. It may be noted that in the ox tribe, however; 

 more than in any other under domestication, the practice of close and 

 in-breeding has been indulged, and while the coveted qualities of 

 rapid growth and maturity, combined with the higher milking quail 

 ties, have been forced to a higher state of perfection, the infirmities 

 of the constitution have also been multiplied and intensified. 



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