STOCK DISEASES.-ANTHRAX.

Otago Witness, Issue 1855, 10 June 1887, Page 6

STOCK DISEASES.-ANTHRAX.

At the conference of delegates in Sydney to discuss the question of- stock diseases, it was resolved that penalties should be inflicted on persons who failed to report outbreaks of anthrax in their stock or who sold carcasses of animals which had suffered from the disease. It may be said that the question has no interest for us because the malady is unknown in this colony, but the idea suggests itself that this and other contagious diseases may have existed undetected, because, being unfamiliar to them, stock« holders would attribute their losses to fanciful causes, and there is no organisation or virtual surveillance of stock which would ensure the detection of outbreaks of diseaso and their classification.

The nature and character of anthrax diseases are, unfortunately, too well known in New South Wales, where one form of them— Cumberland disease — occurred as, early as 1847. The Chief Inspector of Stock, Queensland, in a report on. the subject in 1868, stated : " Its attacks are more frequent and. severe in some localities than in Others, but the losses are not so great now as in former years. Some 10 or IS years ago the losses were almost ruinous in some districts of New South Wales. Now, however, it is not of • such a malignant character," and the deaths rarely amount to £ per cent, annually." The recurrence of the disease recently in New South Wales has again drawn attention , to the subject, and whatever may have been the diversity of opinion' some years ago as to its non-contagious character, the balance of opinion may be summed up in the Queensland inspector's report, which was to the following effect, as quoted.in Mr Graham Mitchell's pamphlet ,on the " Cumberland Disease in Stock": — "In view of all the circumstances it would appear:' (1) That the disease originates in low-lying alluvial flats, and is induced' by some -predisposing cause or, combination, of , causes, which stock depastured on more elevated and poorer soils have' -as yet • been ' able, successfully to resist ; (2) That the disease when set up can be communicated by contagion under certain existing circumstances ; (3) That the' slow -rate at which it continues to spread throughout the colonies, as well as the fact of its being almost solely confined to low situations, would induce the belief that the predisposing causes will be found to be either miasma or some noxious plant or fungus." . ■ It must be borne in mind, however, that anthrax disease manifests itself in various ■ways — indeed, so distinctly that its ■ varying forms are regarded as different maladies. A fatal disorder among some of the most thriving young stock, and familiarly known as black quarter, is one,

An animal becomes suddenly lame, and is swollen generally in a hind limb, from which, i£ the skin is pressed, a crackly sound proceeds. The attack is sudden, and the termination rapid and usually fatal.

The antiquity and wide range of anthrax disease among stock all over the world are thus depicted in "The Review of Pasteur and his Work" in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal : — " It was one of the plagues with which the Egyptians were punished in the time of Moses, when there was a breaking forth of Mains upon man and upon beast throughout all the land of Egypt; upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep. Virgil in his Georgics has depicted its deadliness and contagiousness, pointing out the dangers of the tainted fleeces of diseased sheep to mankind— as if he were describing the cause of what is now known as the woolsorters' disease — anthrax conveyed to man by infected wool, and far from uncommon among the people employed in woollen factories in the United Kingdom."

It is scarcely possible to sufficiently impress upon stock people the amount of the losses from anthrax disease in stock. Some of our old identities will remember " elf shot " in cattle, aad the many frauds in the Old Country and fraudulent cures which were prescribed for the malady. Absurd charms and incantations for the cure' of the disease were, within the memory of the writer, common in Scotland and the North of Ireland. Anthrax, in the form of Cumberland disease, has been intermittent in Australia, and recently information reached us that a disease with all the symptoms of anthrax had appeared among a sheep flock. The following remarks of the Queensland Inspector of Stock very distinctly summarises the indications of the disease, of which, because of its rapid course, none would be observable to the negligent owner : —

"1. There are few if any premonotory symptoms, and it has been truly remarked that it is next to impossible to say whether the animal has been diseased or not until it is almost dead.

"2. The only notable outward symptoms are that the animal is dull and languid, the back is arched, and immediately before death a bloody slimy matter is in some instances ejected from the nostrils and anus. It is said to be essentially a disease of the spleen or milt. A post mortem examination in every instance shows it to be engorged with blood, frequently decomposed and mortified, and to weigh from six to eight times as much as the milt of a healthy animal."