442 DISEASES 03? CATTLE. 



the disease may be contracted in winter from food gathered on per- 

 manently infected fields. 



The disease may appear sporadically, i. e., only one or several ani- 

 mals may be infected while the rest of the herd remain well, or it may 

 appear as an epizootic attacking a large number at about the same 

 time. 



Symptoms. — The symptoms in cattle vary considerably, according as 

 the disease begins in the skin, in the lungs, or in the intestines. They 

 depend also on the severity of the attack. Thus we may have what is 

 called anthrax peracutus or apoplectiform, when the animal dies very 

 suddenly as if from apoplexy. Such cases usually occur in the begin- 

 ning of an outbreak. The animal, without having shown any signs of 

 disease, suddenly drops down in the pasture and dies in convulsions, 

 or an animal apparently well at night is found dead in the morning. 



The second type {anthrax acutus), without any external swellings, is 

 the one most commonly observed in cattle. The disease begins with 

 a high fever. The temperature may reach 106° to 107° F. The pulse 

 beats from 80 to 100 per minute. Feeding and rumination are sus- 

 pended. Chills and muscular tremors may appear. and the skin show 

 uneven temperature. The ears and base of the horns are cold, the coat 

 staring. The animals are dull and stupid and manifest great weakness. 



To these symptoms others are added in the course of the disease. 

 The dullness may give way to great uneasiness, champing of the jaws, 

 spasms of the limbs, kicking and pawing the ground. The breathing 

 may become labored. The nostrils then dilate, the mouth is open, the 

 head raised, and all muscles cf the chest are strained during breath- 

 ing, while the visible mucous membranes (nose, mouth, rectum, and 

 vagina) become bluish. If the disease has started in the bowels, there 

 is much pain, as shown by the moaning of the animal; the discharges, 

 at first firm, become softer and covered with serum, mucus, and blood. 



As the disease approaches the fatal termination the weakness of the 

 animal increases. It leans against supports or lies down. Blood ves- 

 sels may rupture and give rise to spots of blood on the various mucous 

 membranes and bloody discharges from nose, mouth, rectum, and 

 vagina. The urine not infrequently contains blood (red-water). 

 Death ensues within one or two days. 



A third type of the disease {anthrax subacutus) includes those 

 cases in which the disease is more prolonged. It may last from three 

 to seven days and terminate fatally or end in recovery. In this type, 

 which is rarely observed, the symptoms are practically as described 

 in the acute form, only less marked. 



In connection with these types of intestinal anthrax, swellings may 

 appear under the skin in different parts of the body, or the disease 

 may start from such a swelling, caused by the inoculation of anthrax 

 spores in one of the several different ways already described. If the 

 disease begins in the skin it agrees in general with the subacute form 



