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wharf towns, but I am told that in Bathurst the supply of meat is often insufficient for the demand; if the natives would sell their cattle they could easily be sent down the river to Bathurst; this would relieve some of the congested areas; it would also enable the native to select his breeding stock.
Castration is practised by the natives, the method being that of crushing and bruising, and so causing destruction of the testicle; some of the bullocks are very fine animals.
SHREP.
These animals are weedy and unthrifty looking; they receive very little attention, and, as far as I am aware, they are very rarely slaughtered for food.
GOATS.
Appear to thrive well in the Colony, that is, the native ones; those introduced do not as a rule thrive.
POULTRY.
The fowls are very small birds. It cannot be said that they thrive, since during my present tour they have been dying in many parts of the Protectorate; according to reports they are not dying off in adjacent towns, but the deaths occur in one town, and one does not hear of the mortality again until one visits a town sore distance away. It undoubtedly is a disease of domestication, since the wild game birds of the country are very numerous indeed, and are in a thriving condition.
DISEASES MET WITH AND ANIMALS AFFECTED.
Trypanosomiasis is a disease caused by an animal parasite which lives in the fluid portion of the blood, not within the corpuscle. It causes loss of hæmoglobin and destruction of blood; it is transmitted from animal to animal solely by the agency of blood-sucking flies; probably more than one variety of fly is capable of transmitting the disease.
Horses.
I have found cases of trypanosomiasis in all parts of the Protectorate which I have visited, and it causes great loss. I am told that Kommbo and Fogni district has a reputation of being worse for ponies than other parts with reference to the incidence of trypanosomiasis. I have seen a few ponies which have been in that district some time, i.e., many months, and have found them healthy and with a good history from the owner. Fodder for horses is hard to get in the district, and that fact will probably account for the animals readily succumbing to the disease.
Symptoms. Sluggishness, dullness, intermittent fever, dropsy (filling of the legs, swelling of the scrotum and sheath, and swelling under the belly and chest); there is pallor of the conjunctiva and nasal mucous membrane and of the lining membrane of the mouth and gums, and I have often noted ecchymosis of the two former membranes. Appetite is good.
Treatment. If the bites of blood-sucking flies could be prevented there would cease to be cases of this disease; therefore all possible precautions should be taken against flies. In making some suggestions I am perfectly aware that it will be stated that the flies against which these measures are directed may not be responsible for transmitting trypanosomiasis. I wish to point out that all blood-sucking flies are to be regarded with suspicion. I have noticed in all parts of the Protectorate that in the cattle places. (i.e., where the cows are tied up) the manure is left scattered on the surface of the ground during the whole of the dry season, to be washed in when the rains come on. This forms a breeding place for many flies of which, I believe, stomoxys is one. I strongly recommend that a law be made to compel every owner of cattle to cover the manure with earth every morning; this would not involve any great labour, as a small quantity of earth only would be Fires required to cover each dropping; the value of the manure would not be lost. tend to drive away the flies. Animals' legs and bellies can be smeared with an oily dressing this prevents the bites of flies to a large extent.
Curative. Unfortunately this is quite uncertain. Arsenic is, so far, the best drug, but it requires to be given for a long period, and in almost toxic doses. A liberal diet must be given; I believe cases of natural recovery occur. may that I saw one pony at Jattaba in March, 1910, which showed slight clinical In January symptoms, and on examining his blood trypanosomes were numerous. this this horse was clinically perfectly fit, and blood examination was negative;
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this pony received no treatment, and the owner said he had been quite well since I saw him last year. I have seen the disease in donkeys.
Cattle.
I have seen the disease very frequently in cattle; sometimes they showed very little clinically, but I have made many blood examinations, and have found that many animals harbour trypanosomes. Undoubtedly there is some loss from the disease as, in dealing with cases, the natives have told me that during the rains quite a number so affected die. This is easy to understand, as during the latter part of the dry season the cattle are short of pasturage and food, they get run down in condition, and are liable to succumb.
Symptoms-Poverty, staring coat, arched back, anæmia, pulse weak. I have often seen a subnormal temperature (under 102°); the appetite is good.
Treatment. I have not treated many cases in cattle, and those I have done have not been sufficiently long under observation to make any record.
Anthrax.
Is a septicemic disease due to the bacillus of anthrax. The germ is capable of living in soil and water, and of forming spores which are very resistant to adverse conditions of heat, lack of moisture, &c. The spores can retain their dormant vitality for years; the circumstances under which sporulation takes place are suit- able temperature, free exposure to oxygen. If the germs remain in an unopened carcase they rapidly die and degenerate. I have found the disease amongst cattle only, though it is quite capable of infecting horses, sheep, goats, pigs, and human beings. Adult dogs are resistant, birds are immune; usually animals are infected by ingesting bacilli or spores, human beings by inoculation. Anthrax was enzootic in the South Bank Province at the following towns: Suntukung, Barokunda, Mandina, and Pakali Ba, and apparently the losses had been very heavy. At Kulari, in the North Bank, the report of the headman was that cattle, sheep, and goats, and perhaps two horses had died with symptoms of anthrax. The Fullahs had removed their herds from this town.
Symptoms. In cattle and sheep, usually the first warning of the presence of anthrax is the finding of an animal dead of the disease. The animal may be found staggering or in convulsions, in which case death will follow in an hour or so. the temperature were taken it would be found to be high.
If
Post-mortem examination.—If one is made, shows the carcase to be tryonpanitic, the blood dark, tarry, non-coagulating; blood extravasations are present. There is enlargement of the spleen, the contents being fluid. The practice of the native is to leave animals found dead to be eaten by vultures, &c.;-animals which he finds in extremis he cuts their throats and dresses the carcase, cooks and eats the meat, and sells the hide, the latter being subsequently exported from the Colony; both practices are calculated to perpetuate and spread the disease.
Symptoms of anthrax in horses are rather different; there is usually some swelling of the throat, and the disease is not quite so acute as in cattle.
Post-mortem examination.-Swelling of the spleen is not so constant as in
cattle.
Preventive Measures.-Animals should not be slaughtered in extremis. Disposal of Carcase. The carcase should not be cut or opened, as all the bacilli will then degenerate. If the germs are exposed to air they form spores. It should be completely destroyed by burning on the spot where the animal died, or it should be buried at a depth of at least six feet and grass burnt over the grave; it should not be dragged along the ground. It should be remembered that bacilli may be voided with the fæces and urine for even a few hours before death, therefore the dung should be destroyed and other animals kept off the land. Infected herds should be isolated, i.e., kept away from other herds for at least ten days. There is an Ordinance which lays down that these recommendations shall be carried out, but this law is altogether disregarded by the natives.
The practice of selling the hides of anthrax carcases for export is a source of danger to Europeans working as dock labourers. The character of the outbreaks referred to above would indicate that protective inoculation might be tried with some advantage. There are two methods concerning which there are reports of
success --
(1) Pasteurian Method: Two inoculations are required, an interval of
14 days elapsing between each.
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(2) Sobernheim's Method: This is a double inoculation with a protective serum and attenuated anthrax culture, doses being given simul- taneously (or within a few minutes) on opposite sides of the body. This method has been carried out in South America with some success, according to reports. The immunity in either case only lasts 12 months, so it would appear to be necessary to vaccinate every year. If vaccination were tried it would have to be carried out before the rains.
Epizootic Lymphangitis.
Is a disease of the skin and subcutaneous tissue which, so far as is known, only affects equines. I have only seen the disease among horses, and I have seen it at Quinella (South Bank), and Kanube (Upper River), Ballanghar (McCarthy Province). It is due to a germ called the cryptococcus of Rivolta. The disease spreads from horse to horse through the agency of harness, grooming utensils, attendants, and possibly flies, &c.
The lesions spread in an animal along the course of the lymphatics.
Buds or Symptoms. The lesions are like the skin lesions of glanders. abscesses appear, and there is cording of lymphatics; sometimes there is lymphan- gitis when there are several buds on a limb-there is not much constitutional disturb- ance the animal does not react to mallein (as they do in glanders). Old lesions have a granulating surface. When an abscess is newly opened the pus is thick and creamy, and smears made and examined microscopically show the cryptococci numerously present.
Treatment. The disease is very resistant to treatment, and runs a chronic course two to eight months, and on this account and the danger of other horses becom- ing infected (to develop the disease months afterwards), the best course would be to destroy affected animals. The disease has been eradicated from Great Britain and from the British Army by adopting this course. Large numbers of horses were destroyed after the South African War for this disease, and it was after this campaign that the disease was first introduced to England. If treatment be adopted the animal must be isolated-all harness, &c., disinfected the lesions freely opened up and cauterized with the actual cautery or powerful caustics such as chloride of zinc, nitrate of silver, &c. A purgative should be given, followed by a course of iodides. I may add that I had my own pony under treatment for about two months, but recovery would have taken so long that I decided to destroy him.
Filariasis.
This disease is characterized by the presence of the embryos of an adult filaria in the circulating blood. I have seen this affection in horses, donkeys, and
cows.
Symptoms.-Dropsy, loss of condition, and wasting. Treatment.-A course of arsenic is sometimes useful.
DISEASES OF POULTRY.
As before mentioned, there have been very heavy losses amongst the fowls in various parts of the Protectorate, and, very unfortunately, I have only obtained a very small number of subjects for examination. The native description of the affections from which the birds have died points to the fact that there are at least two distinct diseases at work.
Fowl Diphtheria or Contagious Epithelioma.
The disease is often erroneously described under the first name.. The cause of the disease is said to be an ultra-visible virus.
Symptoms.-There is the formation of scaly crusts around the commissures of the beak and about the eyes.
Treatment.-Immediate segregation of affected birds, removal of the crusts and destruction of them by burning, and the application of an antiseptic, burning the bodies of birds dead of the disease, disinfection of the fowl runs, moving the living fowls on to fresh ground, are the measures to be suggested.
I have seen this disease in Bathurst.
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Fowl Cholera.
Is a septicemic disease caused by a bipolar staining organism. Symptoms.-The disease is very acute, and often the first warning is the finding of a dead bird, or at the most there is an illness of 'a day and a half.
The birds are very thirsty, dull, and remain squatting in one place, and die in convulsions.
Treatment. The practical measures are to move the fowls on to fresh ground every day for about week.
a
I have only seen two cases of this disease, but from the symptoms given to me by the natives of the disease which has caused such loss amongst the poultry this (native) year, it is possible they have died from fowl cholera, though the symptoms also suggest the occurrence of—
Spirochetosis.
A disease caused by a spirillum, and suspected to be inoculated by the agency of ticks.
The measures to adopt are the extermination of ticks and the placing of new fowls on fresh ground not likely to be contaminated with infected ticks.
Tuberculosis.
Fowl. I have found one case of this disease in a fowl at Jarrol, but I was not able to ascertain if it causes much loss amongst fowls, and I have not seen the disease amongst other animals.
Tetanus.
Generally known as lock-jaw, is caused by the bacillus of tetanus—a germ which can live in the soil, is commonly found in horse mauure, and is capable of forming spores. The germ obtains entrance to the body through a wound and remains at the site of entry, but generates a poison which travels up the nerve trunks and attacks the vital centres. Horses, cattle, sheep, and all animals are susceptible: it is far commoner amongst horses and young lambs than other animals; but I have only seen the disease in one bullock in this country. Anti-tetanic serum will prevent an attack, but it is not of much use as a curative agent.
Treatment.-All wounds should be treated on antiseptic lines.
Symptoms.-Stiffness of gait, tonic contraction of muscles, muscles of mastica- tion being affected.
Curative.-Absolute rest and quiet in a darkened building. The animal should be disturbed as little as possible. A dose of physic, followed by sedatives, e.g., bromide of potassium, chloral hydrate, in the form of an electuary, may be given. When the jaws are fixed only liquid nourishment can be taken, such as gruels. On elevating the muzzle the third eyelid (the membrane nictitans) passes over the eye.
Mange.
This is a skin disease due to an animal parasite. It is contagious and very difficult to cure.
Symptoms. Loss of hair, formation of scurf and wrinkled condition of the skin, great itching.
Treatment. Isolation, application of sulphur ointment, disinfectant baths. I may mention that one dog suffering from chronic mange was destroyed in Bathurst. The owner agreed to this course when the nature of the disease was explained to him.
GOVERNMENT Bulls.
These animals were housed in Bathurst in fly-proof buildings; they were not getting any cows, and I recommended that they should be sent up the country in order that they might get some service.
I was informed later that one which went to Kommbo had been shot on the recommendation of Professor Todd, who found the animal infected with trypano- somiasis. It was impracticable to send the other bull up the river, and he subse- quently had to be shot for vice.
GOVERNMENT STALLION.
Named "Sandiway." This is a very good but not a young horse. He is a thoroughbred polo pony with splendid conformation, and I consider he should do much to improve the breed of horses in the country. Unfortunately there is