Burning and cutting of long grasses, bracken, rushes, etc.
Salt and sulphur given to the sheep.
Inoculation.
Removal of all diseased sheep to a separate inclosure, where hand-picking and dipping are carefully attended to, the pasture is kept short, and damp places are drained. The sheep to be confined to this inclosure so long as the tick season lasts.
Immediate slaughter and burial of all affected sheep.
BRAXY.
[The following is a very condensed account of a paper published by C. O. Jensen on the above disease. It first appeared in English in the Veterinarian, Vol. LXIX., No. 825, p. 621, along with the original illustrations.]
The name Braxy is applied to a disease in some respects resembling anthrax, which appears as an epizootic, and is best known in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and parts of Norway, though it also occurs in Scotland and Cornwall. Krabbe describes the disease as infectious, very acute in its course, and as proving fatal within a few hours of the appearance of certain characteristic swellings about the posterior parts of the body. Post-mortem reveals extensive dark purplish staining of the abomasum and distension of the digestive canal with gas, while decomposition of the cadaver occurs with excessive rapidity, the liver and kidneys undergoing softening, the skin assuming a bluish tint, the wool becoming loose, and the entire carcase giving off a most offensive stench. Krabbe states that the disease was regarded as a form of anthrax—a view, however, in which he does not coincide. Somewhat later Messrs. J. Sigurosson, S. Jönsson, and Einarsson, all natives of Iceland, and the Norwegian State Veterinary Surgeon, Ivar Nielsen, carefully described the disease, throwing considerable light both on the conditions in which it appears and on its etiology.
According to them, braxy is an acute, or even exceedingly acute, infectious disorder, which begins as a hæmorrhagic inflammation of the mucous membrane of the abomasum, is accompanied by excessive development of gas in the digestive canal, especially in the stomachs, and proves fatal in some cases by a kind of general infection, in others by a specific intoxication, or by dyspnœa due to tympanites.
Braxy commits its chief ravages during the winter months: appearing first in autumn, the cases increase as winter approaches, to diminish again in spring; in summer they are exceedingly rare. This fact explains why the disease was so long regarded as due to climatic influences. Even at the present day, when it is known to be due to a specific organism, the action of temperature, etc., must still be regarded as probably playing an important part in infection. The disease is said not to occur in mild weather; but whether or not this be true, every one is agreed that it is principally seen during frost, especially when frost is unaccompanied by snow.