TEXAS FEVER
The annual loss to the South, because of the cattle tick, extends into many millions of dollars. Investigations show that a complete extermination can be effected at a cost of $6 per farm.
TEXAS OR TICK FEVER.
—The earliest accounts that we have of this disease date back to 1814. It was found that cattle driven from a certain district in South Carolina to other parts of the state would infect others with the disease, while they themselves seemed to be in perfect health. The disease is known by various names in the different sections of the country. It is often called red water, Spanish fever, Australian tick fever, and murain.
A TYPICAL CASE OF FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE
The disease shows itself about the mouth, the feet and the teats. When an outbreak occurs all affected animals should be destroyed and all quarters thoroughly disinfected.
This is a specific fever, and is characterized by the peculiarity among animal diseases that animals which scatter the infection are apparently in good health, while those which sicken and die from it do not, as a rule, infect others.
When the cattle are brought into the infected districts they usually contract the disease during the first of the summer, and if they are adult cattle, particularly milch cows or fat cattle, nearly all die; calves are more likely to survive. The disease is one from which immunity is acquired, and, therefore, calves which recover from the disease are not again attacked, as a rule, even after they become adult.
When the disease is prevalent or scattered beyond the infected district the roads, barns and pastures are dangerous until freezing weather, when the disease disappears and cattle can be kept in the grounds or driven over the roads without catching the disease. The midwinter months is the only time that cattle can be safely driven from an infected area to a non-infected area without spreading the disease.