BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 65 



Contribution from the Bureau of Animal Inchistry, A. D. Melvin, Chief. 

 February 14, 1914. 



(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 



CEREBROSPINAL MENINGITIS ("FORAGE 

 POISONING"). 



By John R. Mohler, V. M. D., Chief of the Pathological Division. 



INTRODUCTION. 



About 100 years ago (1813) there appeared in Wurttemberg a fatal 

 disease of horses which was termed "head disease" owing to the pro- 

 nounced manifestation of brain symptoms. The affection spread 

 through certain sections of Europe from 1824 to 1828 and was de- 

 scribed as "fever of the nerves." In 1878 the attention of the veter- 

 inarians of Saxony was attracted to the disease, which was then 

 termed "nervous sickness/' and within the next 10 years it assumed 

 an epizootic character. In fact the malady became so prevalent in 

 and around Borna (near Leipsic, Germany) during the nineties that 

 it became known as the Borna disease. The affection has spread like 

 a plague on two occasions in Belgium, and has also exacted a heavy 

 toU in Russia, Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, and elsewhere. Its 

 appearance in America is by no means of recent occurrence, for the 

 malady was reported by Large in 1847, by Michener in 1850, and by 

 Liautard in 1869 as appearing in both sporadic and enzootic form in 

 several of the Eastern States. Since then the disease has occurred 

 periodically in many States in all sections of the country, and has been 

 the subject of numerous investigations and publications by a number 

 of the leading men of the veterinary profession. It is prevalent with 

 more or less severity every year in certain parts of the United States, 

 and during the year 1912 the Bureau of Animal Industry received 

 urgent requests for help from Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Ken- 

 tucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North 

 Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and West 

 Virginia. While in 1912 the brunt of the disease seemed to fall on 

 Kansas and Nebraska, other States were also seriously afflicted. 

 In previous years, for instance in 1882 as well as in 1897, the horses of 

 southeastern Texas were reported to have died by the thousand, and 



Note. — This publication gives information about a serious disease of horses; it is especially suited to 

 veterinarians in the States west of the Mississippi River and in the South. 

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