PREVENTION, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT II9 



buffalo and other animals, occurring in epizootic form and having 

 a very great mortality — 80 to 90 per cent. It is due to Bacterium 

 bovisepticum — an ovoid, nonmotile, organism of the cocco-bacilli 

 group like that of chicken cholera and swine plague. It is thought 

 to enter the body through abrasions of the skin or digestive mucous 

 membrane and arises more often in swampy localities and in the 

 spring. 



Symptoms. — These are commonly divided into three groups — 

 the cutaneous, pectoral and intestinal — although they are variously 

 combined and may all occur in the same individual. More often 

 the cutaneous form terminates in the intestinal. The symptoms are 

 generally due to serous and bloody extravasations into various parts, 

 as into the subcutaneous, submucous and subserous tissues, and into 

 the glands, muscles and viscera. 



The cutaneous symptoms are more frequent. Swelling of the 

 face, submaxillary region (glands), neck, dewlap and lower limbs 

 distort the appearance. The swelling is board-like, hot and tender 

 and does not pit. The tongue is swollen, purple, and mucous folds 

 may be seen on its sides as it protrudes from the mouth. Dyspnea 

 and suffocation may occur from swelling of the mucous membrane 

 of the respiratory tract. The nasal membrane is brownish red and 

 covered with petechiae and there is a bloody discharge from the 

 nose. Salivation, stomatitis and disinclination to eat together with 

 high fever are seen. Death commonly ends in the intestinal form 

 with colic, the animal getting up and down and groaning and having 

 dysentery with much tenesmus and passage of casts of the bowel 

 and mucus. The pectoral form resembles pneumonia and is some- 

 times seen alone. Death occurs in from six hours to as many days 

 and rarely the disease does not terminate until many weeks. 



Diagnosis. — External swellings are seen in anthrax, blackleg 

 and malignant edema. In anthrax the spleen is swollen, the blood 

 is tarry and non-coagulable post mortem ; malignant edema usually 

 starts from a wound and the swellings crepitate and often have a 



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