598 VETBEINAEY HYGIENE 



are seen early, Brown* tells us there can be no possible 

 mistakes made ; contagious foot rot begins as an affection 

 of the skin between the digits, and from this extends to the 

 sensitive structures of the foot, causing them to be cast off. 

 Non-contagious foot cases, on the other hand, begin by 

 affecting the horn of the digits, and subsequently the 

 internal structures. 



The latter form of the disease is due to the mechanical 

 irritation of dirt, which finds its way in by any breach in 

 the horn, while specific foot rot is a highly contagious 

 malady readily communicable from sheep to sheep through 

 infected pastures. 



Brown's experiments show that the disease may be pro- 

 duced by the introduction of infected matter between the 

 digits, or by inoculation, and probably even when taken by 

 the mouth from contaminated pastures. 



Foot rot cannot be produced, as is popularly supposed, by 

 wet and undrained lands, by coarse or wet herbage, or by 

 standing on wet and rotten litter and manure. The above 

 authority kept animals for many months under these 

 conditions and produced nothing, while on being exposed to 

 infection they contracted the disease in from fourteen to 

 twenty-one days. 



Eegarding the period of incubation it may vary from ten 

 to twenty days or even longer, and in this way infected 

 animals showing no sign of the disease may be introduced 

 into a healthy flock. 



Foot rot may be checked by the regular examination of 

 the feet, if possible three times a week, when the early stages 

 of the disease may readily be seen and controlled by the 

 application of carbolic acid and glycerine, or the animals 

 may be driven through a trough containing a solution of 

 carbolic acid. 



Owing to the long incubative period which sometimes 

 exists in foot rot, the best method when the affection is 



* ' Contagious Foot Eot in Sheep ' (Professor J. T. Brown) : Journal 

 of the Boyal Agricultural Society, vol. iii., part ii., 1892. I am in- 

 debted to this article for the facts here related. 



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