DOURINE OR MALADIE DU COIT 5 



Under our present policy of slaughter and compensation which, taking into con- 

 sideration the loathsome, insidious and frequently fatal nature of the disease, is the 

 only one possible, certainty of diagnosis is all important. Hitherto the utmost caution 

 in condemnation has been observed, but many cases are met with, especially in mares, 

 where the symptoms shown are so slight, intermittent or even evanescent, that it is 

 practically impossible to reach an intelligent decision as to their disposal. 



It is not, at first sight advisable, to order the slaughter of valuable animals merely 

 on suspicion, or on circumstantial evidence alone. On the other hand, our experience 

 has shown that many cases slight at first and subsequently apparently recovered have, 

 under adverse or unfavourable conditions, broken down and developed the disease in 

 an aggravated form. 



Prolonged quarantine for observation purposes is a very serious matter to owners 

 who are frequently far from rich, and whose principal source of income is, not uncom- 

 monly, the progeny of the very animals held under suspicion, and the breeding of 

 which is forbidden. 



Further, in spite of all precautions, such animals, especially mares, kept under 

 range conditions are liable to escape temporarily from surveillance and to become a 

 source of danger to neighbouring stallions and colts, and through them to the mares 

 of other breeders which, unsuspected, may in turn convey the disease to distant studs. 



I at one time entertained a hope that, by the removal of the ovaries of such mares 

 as were apparently but slightly aifected and on the road to recovery, the problem of 

 their safe disposal might be solved. I thought it possible that such spayed mares, if 

 clearly and heavily branded as -unfit for breeding, might find a market as work animals 

 only, and although, as all horsebreeders know, the failure of mares to come in season 

 will not always protect them from the crvielty of an ignorant owner, under the 

 influence of an unscrupulous stallion groom, I decided to operate on a few of those 

 held for experimental purposes. The results were anything but encouraging. One 

 mare died immediately after the operation, this unfortimate sequel being, according 

 to the operator, a veterinarian of long experience and surgical ability, due to a well 

 marked degeneration and consequent tenuity of the arterial walls. A second mare has 

 since developed nymphomania and become a chronic rutter, while in her case also the 

 local symptoms became somewhat aggravated. 



These results were not of such a nature as to encourage further experimentation 

 in this direction, especially as, even if uniformly successful, the ojjeration could not, 

 for reasons already given, be looked upon as a satisfactory solution of the difiiculty 

 confronting the Department. 



The only other course not involving slaughter, viz. — permitting to go free such 

 mares as seem but slightly affected and subsequently appear to recover is not, in my 

 opinion, to be recommended, the risk of spreading the infection, not only to the 

 breeding stock of the individual owner interested, but through shipments of horses 

 to other districts, being altogether too great. 



The policy at present followed in dealing with animals so slightly affected as to 

 be doubtful, or in regard to which reasonable suspicion of infection may be enter- 

 tained, but the slaughter of which is scarcely justifiable, is to hold them under close 

 supervision, at the same time forbidding their use for breeding pui-poses. This 

 method is, as above stated, satifactory neither to the owner nor to the Department, 

 but without some more reliable means of accurate diagnosis, it is not easy to devise 

 a better. 



The discovery of an accurate diagnostic agent, or of any constant pathological 

 condition on which an accurate diagnosis could be based, would be of the greatest 

 possible value, and it is with this as the principal object that our present research 

 work is being carried on. It would also, needless to say, be very gratifying if our 

 efforts in this direction were to result in the discover^' of any method of successful 

 treatment, or better still, prevention. 



