A PECULIAR DISEASE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1601, 19 November 1912, Page 10

A PECULIAR DISEASE.

HORSES DYING BY HUNDREDS. According to American files, an' unknown disease is causing much mortality amongst horses in Kansas. At the time the mail left at the end of September the disease was still spreading, 'filenames cerebro-spinal meningitis and forage poisoning are applied to the disease, although its precise nature seems 'not'.to be understood and no way has been found of curing it. It is said to have appeared in three-fourths of the counties of Kansas, where estimates place the loss at over 25,000 horses already. In Nebraska it is thought about 8000 horses have died, and many have died in Colorado, while some cases have developed in lowa even to the eastern part of the State. Prom reports of 250 veterinarians who met at-Lincoln, Nebraska, to consider the disease, it appeared that it most frequently, attacks work horses that aro turned out at nights on pasture and also those pastured on low damp land. Veterinarians of the States affected and' also many from adjoining States and the Government Bureau of Animal Industry are studying the disease. A false report was circulated that injections of tetanus antitoxin had cured several cases, but so far only preventive measures have really proved effective. The disease does not seem to be contagious but to be acquired from eating damaged feed of this year's growth. Accordingly it is recommended that horses in affected • districts be kept off of pastures and fed sound grain and hay of last-year's production or feed shipped in. from looalities where no cases of this disease have occurred. The State authorities do not generally contemplate establishing quarantines against horses from affected States, as. it seems clear that the feed and animals convey the disease.