THE DOG AS A OAKBIER OF PARASITES AND DISEASE. 



b....- 



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GID. 



Gid disease, like hydatid disease, is due to the presence of a blad- 

 der worm, or larval tapeworm, in the tissues. The bladder worm 

 (known as MvZticeps multiceps or Ocenurus cerebralis) (fig. 4) which 

 causes gid resembles the hydatid bladder worm in that one bladder 

 worm may produce large numbers of tapeworm heads, and the tape- 

 worms resulting from these heads occur in the intestines of dogs, 

 as in the case of the hydatid tapeworm. The bladder worm caus- 

 ing gid differs from the hydatid in that it has a thin, delicate, 

 membranous wall in- 

 stead of a thick lam- 

 inated wall; it does 

 not produce daughter 

 cysts as the hydatid 

 does, and it occurs 

 only in the brain 

 and spinal cord in- 

 stead of in any tis- 

 sue. The adult tape- 

 worm in the dog, 

 commonly known as 

 Tcenia ccenurus (fig. 

 6) attains a length 

 of 2 or 3 feet instead 

 of a small fraction of 

 an inch. 



Gid is principally 

 a disease of sheep, 

 though it is fairly 

 common in cattle and 

 there are some cases 

 from the horse and 

 the goat. In 1910^ 

 the writer stated that there were no valid cases of the disease in 

 man. Since then Brumpt ^ has published one case which apparently 

 must be accepted as a good case. 



The life history of the gid parasite is practically the same as that 

 of the hydatid. The gid bladder worm is called a ccenurus. When 

 this ccenurus is eaten by a dog, the tapeworm heads on the ccenurus 

 pass to the intestine of the dog and give rise to a tapeworm which 



^ The gid parasite and allied species of the oestode genus Multiceps. I. Historical 

 review. By Maurice C. Hall. Bureau of Animal Industry Bulletin 125, pt. 1. 

 2 Precis de parasltologle, 2d ed., pp. 281-283. 1913. 



94288°— Bull. 260—15 2 



Fig. 4. — Brain of giddy sheep, showing gid parasite, o, Gid 

 parasite or bladder worm ; T>, heads on bladder worm. 

 (After Numan, 1850, PI. I, fig. 1.) 



