African Coast Piroplasmosis of Cattle. 617 



■carbolic acid, or secluded in a well fenced enclosure from Febru- 

 ary ist to November isth of each year. This is made the duty 

 •of the stock yard companies. 



Cattle may be freely moved north from the infected area at 

 any time from November ist to December 31st, if inspected by an 

 officer of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture and found free from 

 infection. 



Provision is also made for sending infected cattle northward at 

 any season, if they have been first dipped and pronounced free 

 from the disease by an inspector of the department. 



Cattle from Mexico are admitted under analogous rules. 



AFRICAN COAST PIROPI.ASMOSIS OF CATTlvE. 



Synonyms : Rhodesian fever. African fever. East Coast fever. 

 Tropical piroplasmosis. 



Definition. A fatal piroplasmosis of cattle in Portuguese and 

 British E. Africa, resembling Texas Fever, but not communic- 

 able by one transfer of blood, not causative of red water, some- 

 times complicated by pulmonary lesions, and very fatal (90%). 



Geographical Distribution . This affection was recognized in Ger- 

 man E. Africa and Rhodesia for many years, and in Portuguese E. 

 Africa in 1896, the time of the Mashona rebellion, among transport 

 cattle placed on low ground near Beira. A similar affection is 

 alleged to exist in Asia Minor, so that importation appears 

 reasonable, yet if imported cattle were the first victims at Beira 

 this would argue rather an infection waiting and ready to attack 

 them at that point. From Beira it spread inland to Mashona, 

 Bulawayo, Transvaal and Orange River Colony, gaining a free 

 extension during the Boer war. 



Microbiology. The protozoon found in the red globules is 

 smaller than the piroplasma bigeminum of Texas fever and 

 shows a rod shaped or round form. The rod is sometimes en- 

 larged at one end where it contains the karyosome, thus ap- 

 proximating to the Texas fever parasite. The round form re- 

 sembles an oval or elongated nucleated ring giving the differ- 

 ential characters according to Koch, but Theiler alleges that 



