1904.] 



Navel III or Joint III. 



hi 



generally known under the names of Navel III, Joint III, and 

 locally as Big Joint. 



Navel or Joint 111 is a disease which is of a fatal character 

 not only to lambs but also calves, and appears shortly after 

 the birth of the animals. Outbreaks of the disease also 

 occasionally occur among foals, the joints being the chief seat 

 of disease. Some years ago it caused the death of many 

 thoroughbred foals at the Royal Paddocks at Hampton Court, 

 and outbreaks have been recorded on the Continent in which 

 considerable losses have occurred among this class of animal. 

 The disease is one which can only be successfully dealt with 

 by the practice of strict cleanliness on the part of the 

 shepherd or other person in charge of the animals, combined 

 with a system of antiseptic treatment of the navel cord shortly 

 after birth. 



The following copy of a report by the Veterinary Inspector 

 who had charge of the enquiry should enable the stock-owner to 

 recognise the disease. 



The lambs are born vigorous and healthy, but within a few 

 days their sprightliness disappears, and stiffness of the joints 

 becomes apparent, followed by the formation of abscesses on 

 almost all the joints, in the lymphatic glands, and frequently on 

 the lips and muzzle. The position of the abscesses in the latter 

 case is important, as the pus from them infects the udders of the 

 ewes. The ewes show similar symptoms. From their method 

 of infection the udder is the seat of pus formation, as are 

 also the lymphatic glands at the back of the udder. Death is 

 caused by exhaustion or blood-poisoning, the liver usually 

 containing a number of small abscesses. On post-mortem 

 examination pus formation is found in almost every part of 

 the body, all the membranes surrounding the joints are more 

 or less affected, and hardly a lymphatic gland can be found 

 which does not contain pus, and quantities of pus also accumu- 

 late in the covering of the heart. 



The sheep-breeding customs of the districts where the 

 disease has appeared tend to its spread and continuance. 



As a rule, big flocks of breeding ewes are kept, and these are 

 lambed down in a yard divided by hurdles into pens, each to 

 hold one ewe. In one case as many as 400 ewes lambed in one 



