BULLETIN. OF: THs 
€ Be) USDEARTVENT OF AULT 
No. 65 
=A 
"7 iy 
Contribution from the Bureau of Animal Industry, A. D. Melvin, Chief. 
February 14, 1914. 
(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 
CEREBROSPINAL MENINGITIS («FORAGE 
| POISONING”). 7 
By JoHn R. Mouter, V. M. D., Chief of the Pathological Division. 
INTRODUCTION. 
About 100 years ago (1813) there appeared in Wurttemberg a fatal 
disease of horses which was termed ‘‘head disease’’ owing to the pro- 
nounced manifestation of brain symptoms. The affection spread 
through certain sections of Europe from 1824 to 1828 and was de- 
scribed as ‘‘fever of the nerves.’ . In 1878 the attention of the veter- 
inarians of Saxony was attracted to the disease, which was then 
termed “‘nervous sickness,’ and within the next 10 years it assumed 
an epizootic character. In fact the malady became so prevalent in 
and around Borna (near Leipsic, Germany) during the nineties that 
it became known as the Borna disease. The affection has spread like 
a plague on two occasions in Belgium, and has also exacted a heavy 
toll in Russia, Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, and elsewhere. Its 
appearance in America is by no means of recent occurrence, for the 
malady was reported by Large in 1847, by Michener in 1850, and by 
Liautard in 1869 as appearing in both sporadic and enzootic form in 
several of the Eastern States. Since then the disease has occurred 
periodically in many States in all sections of the country, and has been 
the subject of numerous investigations and publications by a number 
of the ieading men of the veterinary profession. It is prevalent with 
more or less severity every year in certain parts of the United States, 
and during the year 1912 the Bureau of Animal Industry received 
urgent requests for help from Colorado, Georgia, lowa, Kansas, Ken- 
tucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North 
Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and West 
Virginia. While im 1912 the brunt of the disease seemed to fall on 
Kansas and Nebraska, other States were also seriously afflicted. 
In previous years, for instance in 1882 as well as in 1897, the horses of 
southeastern Texas were reported to have died by the thousand, and 
Note.—This publication gives information about a serious disease of horses; it is especially suited to 
veterinarians in the States west of the Mississippi River and in the South. 
- 22575°—14 2 
