Group III. 



ACUTE INFECTIOUS DISEASES WITH LOCALIZATION 

 IN CERTAIN ORGANS 



1. Strangles. Adenitis equorum, 



{Corysa contagiosa equorum; distemper; Druse der Pferde, 

 [German]; Gourme [French]; Adenite equia [Italian].) 



Strangles is an aente, contagious, infectious disease of 

 horses, in the course of which catarrhal symptoms of the upper 

 air passages develop in association with suppurative inflamma- 

 tions in the adjoining lymph glands, and sometimes in a 

 metastatic form in more distant lymph glands. The strepto- 

 coccus equi is considered at the present time as the cause of 

 the disease. 



History. The disease, which is very {)revalent among horses, and 

 especially among colts, has long been considered as a specific affection of 

 the young, which was supposed to be essential to the normal develop- 

 ment of the animal, while similar affections of older animals were con- 

 sidered as an entirely different disease (Solleysel, Vitet, Lafosse). It 

 was also supposed (Spinola), that it might sometimes lead to glanders 

 (Traeger [1836] was the first to take a stand against this view). 



Bowinghausen recognized the contagious nature of the disease 

 towards the end of the eighteenth century, while Viborg demonstrated 

 the infectiousness of the nasal discharge of the infected horses by inocu- 

 lation experiments at the beginning of the last century. Schiitz in 

 1888, and independently of him, Jensen & Sand, as well as Poels, estab- 

 lished the etiological importance of the streptococci which are present 

 in' the nasal discharge and in the pus of the glands. 



Occurrence. Strangles occurs almost annually in studs and 

 sale depots, when it usually affects practically all the young 

 foals in a varying degree. In later ages it is rarely observed, 

 and almost exclusively in horses which have not passed through 

 the disease while young. It occurs almost everywhere (Ireland 

 and Argentine are supposed to be free of the infection), and 

 although its course is usually favorable, yet it may cause con- 

 siderable loss to the horse owner through frequent disturbances 

 in the development of the colts, and also by occasional deaths. 



In the years 1899-1908, 1753 horses were affected with strangles in the Prus- 

 sian Army, of which 43 died, and 49% of the affections occurred in the last 



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