SYMPTOMS 



433 



the feces. It retains its vitality outside of the body in a moist 

 state for months, even a year or more, according to some au- 

 thorities. Hence, feces and the fodder and bedding soiled by 

 the discharges may convey the disease. When dried, how- 

 ever, its vitality is said to be lost in a few days. Persons may 

 carry the virus on their shoes, clothing and farm implements. 

 Even small animals such as cats and rats, which frequent 

 barns and stables, have been looked upon as carriers of the 

 infection. The hides of animals dead of the disease may trans- 

 mit the infection. The virus is destroyed, according to Hutch- 

 eon, by complete desiccation. Kraiewsky found that the virus 

 was destroyed in hides soaked in corrosive sublimate i-iooo 

 for 24 hours, or in 2.4 per cent carbolic acid for the same time. 



It is also claimed that animals after having passed through 

 one attack of the disease are able to resist successfully future 

 attacks. Inoculation with the virus is said to produce immun- 

 ity, but the process of inoculation itself is followed by death in 

 many cases. The disease is reported to have developed after 

 feeding hay a year after it has lain in an infected stable. It is 

 destroyed at a temperature of 131" F. but in animal tissues it 

 is said by some to resist putrefaction. Hutcheon, however, 

 states that putrefaction appears to destroy it. 



The period of incubation is stated to be from three to ten 

 days. In animals inoculated with virulent blood it is from 

 sixty to ninety-six hours. 



§ 346. Symptoms. The symptoms of rinderpest are 

 those of a severe, acute, infectious disease. At first the tem- 

 perature rises to 105 to 106° F. and remains near that point 

 with but slight variations until other symptoms develop. The 

 pulse is small, beating from 160 to 120 per minute. There is 

 great debility, decrease in the yield of milk and loss of 

 appetite ; rumination becomes disturbed and the animal may 

 have slight attacks of shivering. 



After these preliminary symptoms there are well marked 

 rigors, respiration becomes accelerated and the visible mucous 

 membranes assume a scarlet color. There is entire loss of 



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