CIRRHOSIS IN CATTLE, SHEEP AND HORSES FED 

 ON SENECIO JACOBCEA. PICTOU DISEASE. 



Definition. A fatal, usually chronic cirrhosis of cattle, sheep 

 and horses, met with in the counties of Pictou and Antigonish, 

 Nova Scotia, in New Zealand, and elsewhere in ratio with the 

 extension of Senecio Jacobcea in the pastures and meadows. 



History in Nova Scotia. The disease was unknown until the 

 arrival from Scotland in 1853 of a ship, the ballast from which, 

 containing the seeds of the Senecio, was spread in the vicinity 

 of the wharf , and seeded the locality with this injurious weed. So 

 manifestly parallel, ran the extension of the plant and the dis- 

 ease, that Mr. Gordon, Street Commissioner, imposed a fine on 

 any one who allowed the Senecio to grow on his lands, but es- 

 caping this jurisdiction it slowly extended and in 50 years has 

 gradually invaded the two maritime counties of Pictou and Anti- 

 gonish, while respecting the remainder of Nova Scotia though 

 on the same geological formation, in the same climate, and much 

 of it under the same rather backward agricultural system. " Not 

 one case has occurred beyond the weed area, and it does not ap- 

 pear in the territory where the weed is found only in the high- 

 ways." (Pethick. ) It may be added that on farms that had 

 been formerly deadly, the thorough eradication of the Senecio, 

 by pulling them in the fields, and even the picking of the plant 

 from the hay to be used for winter feeding, has put a stop to the 

 disease. (Pethick). 



History in New Zealand. This is less circumstantial than 

 that of Nova Scotia. Early reports, about 1883, refer to a cir- 

 cumscribed area of Senecio and cirrhosis on one farm only, in 

 Winton district, Southland. From this it seemed to extend 

 slowly along the railroad line to Eumsden on the one hand, toward 

 Invercargill on the other, toward Fortrose on another, and along 

 the Dunedin line to Gore and Mataura on still another. (Pater- 

 son). Some districts became invaded by the Senecio and disease 

 through the hay broughtjto feed horses kept in connection with 

 saw mills, in other cases it was spread by pasturing cattle in 

 place of sheep. The sheep cropped the Senecio when young and 

 prevented it from running to seed : the cattle let it grow and seed 

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