966 Wool Eating. 



Prevention. If the disease has developed after feeding of 

 peat meadow hay, its occurrence may be prevented permanently, 

 according to Ostertag & Zuntz, by using the peat meadows for 

 pasturage, by "brown hay" in place of the ordinary hay, or by 

 sowing clover on the peat meadows. On the other hand, the 

 harm is only diminished if the hay is treated with scalding water 

 or if it is steamed ; although animals may be carried through the 

 winter fairly well on hay treated in this manner. The poisonous 

 effect of the hay may also be reduced by fertilizing the meadows 

 with sodium nitrate. A further preventive measure consists in 

 feeding cattle in the affected regions only with second crop hay, 

 or with the first crop which has been cut before flowering. — ■ 

 Brauer and Lippold observed favorable effects from draining 

 the pastures. 



Literature. Berndt, P. Vb., 1902. II. 30. — Brauer, S. B., 1885. 63; 1890. 

 80; 1893. 121. — Hillebrand, W. f. Tk:, 1906. 367. — Kleiapaul, B. t. W., 1903. 1. — 

 Leibenger, W. f. Tk., 1906. 542. — Lemke, D. Z. f. Tm., 1882. VIII. 102. — 

 Lippold, 8. B., 1890. 80. — Ostertag & Zuntz, Z. f. Infkr., 1907. II. 409. — Weigel, 

 S. B., 1893. 121. 



6. Wool Eating. 



Occurrence. Wool eating is observed in the finer breeds of 

 sheep only during wintering, especially toward the end of winter, 

 and causes considerable losses in wool, sometimes even death 

 owing to the formation of hair balls in the stomach. 



Etiology. Apparently wool eating is often only a bad habit 

 which is possibly formed in consequence of the tedium of the 

 young animals when they are constantly kept in the stable, 

 and may be assumed to spread by imitation. It is, however, 

 very probable that in certain cases insufficient feeding or an 

 unsuitable chemical composition of the fodder, especially a 

 deficiency in nutritive minerals is a factor. 



Symptoms. In a drove of sheep a few lambs begin, usually 

 already in early winter, but mostly not until later, to gnaw the 

 wool of their mothers, preferably on the thighs, on the abdomen 

 and the tail, that is principally on those parts of the body which 

 are soiled with urine or feces. More and more of the lambs 

 follow the example, and eventually not only their own mothers, 

 but other sheep as well are attacked, the lambs gnawing at them 

 together. Among yearlings or older sheep also, one or at most 

 a few animals begin to gnaw the wool of another one, but pres- 

 ently more and more animals acquire this vicious habit. At first 

 the gnawing sheep attack the same animal, choosing a new 

 victim only when they have eaten all the wool off the first one. 

 In this manner the evil assumes a constantly increasing exten- 

 sion, until finally all sheep have acquired the habit and the wool 

 eating has become general in the drove. 



