SARCOPTIC SCABIES (ACARIASIS) IN SHEEP. HEAD 

 SCAB. BLACK NOSE. 



Sarcoptic scabies of sheep's head: Black-nose : Sarcoptes has 6 anterior 

 and 14 posterior dorsal spines. May extend to body in coarse-wooled ; goat 

 and man susceptible. Symptoms of scabies confined in fine wools to face, 

 lips, nostrils, eyelids, ears, forehead, cheeks, intermaxilla. In all seasons 

 and places, unlike trombidiosis ; rubs face on fore limbs, etc., scratches with 

 hind feet ; abrasions, scabs, sores, thickened skin ; mucopurulent discharge 

 from nose and eyes, etc. Treatment : Oil of cade, tar soap, sulphur oint- 

 ment, potassium sulphide, naphthalin, etc. Cloth cover on face. Remove 

 from infested premises. Make exposure or sale penal. 



The burrowing mite which causes this disease confines its rav- 

 ages almost entirely to that portion of the face which is uncovered 

 by wool. Hence it has been named black muzzle noir-muzeau 

 in France. Its cause, Sarcoptes Scabei var. Ovis, is distin- 

 guished by having on its back six anterior short spines and four- 

 teen long and fusiform posterior spines. The length of the male 

 is .22 to .25 mm., and of the ovigerous female .35 to .49 mm. 



This has been found on moufflons and gazelles, and on long- 

 wooled sheep, especially the Neapolitan, Syrian (fat-tailed) and 

 Zackel sheep. Gerlach failed to propagate it on the wool-covered 

 portions of Merino sheep, but on the long-wooled, with little yolk 

 it can be implanted on any part of the body. It has been success- 

 fully transferred to goat and man (Delafond, Gerlach) persisting 

 until checked by treatment. 



Symptoms. An itchy eruption confining itself to the hairy 

 parts of the face is to be especially suspected. It usually attacks 

 first the lips, nostrils, eyelids and ears, advancing later on the 

 forehead, intermaxillary space and cheeks. It might at this stage 

 be confounded with trombidiosis, but unlike that, it persists in 

 all seasons, in yard-fed as well as in pastured sheep, and does not 

 recover when folded for a few days, on dry food. If it continues 

 for a length of time, it extends from its primary point of election 

 on the head, invading first the parts uncovered by wool — the 

 lower surface of thorax and abdomen, and the flexures of the 

 knees, hocks and pasterns. 



If examined closely when ju.st commencing, or later around 

 the margins, beyond the excoriations caused by rubbing, there 

 12 177 



