This hæmaturia of bovine animals is clinically indicated by the presence of blood in the urine; anatomically by lesions of the bladder, sometimes also of the ureters. It is probable that some forms at least of the condition will ultimately be proved to be due to the piroplasmata, but in the present state of our knowledge the disease can only be described from the clinical standpoint. The reader is recommended to refer to the article on “Bovine Piroplasmosis,” ante.
Pichon in 1863 and Sinoir in 1864 introduced the name “hæmaturia” in the course of their remarkable investigations concerning the disease. Vigney in 1845 and Gillet in 1862 had previously described it, and it has since formed the subject of constant researches.
Detroye in 1891 termed it “essential hæmaturia,” and Galtier in 1892 gave it the name of “hæmorrhagic cystitis.” Boudeaud in 1894 also used the term “hæmaturia of bovine animals.” In Germany the disease is known as “stallroth” (stable-red).
Geographical distribution. Hæmaturia is a perfect scourge in certain countries. It seems to have made its appearance in the departments of the West of France, the Mayenne and the Sarthe, afterwards spreading into the Maine-et-Loire and the Indre. At the present day, it inflicts great ravages in the Creuze, the Corrèze, Haut-Vienne, Cantal and Haute-Loire districts. It has been described in Germany, Belgium, and Italy. These forms are probably due to Piroplasma bigeminum.
Causation. The most varying opinions have been advanced regarding its cause. Pichon believed its appearance was due to changes in cultivation, which between 1830 and 1860 completely altered the general appearance of the country and the conditions of breeding in the old province of Maine. Land reclamations and the use of lime dressings have been mentioned, as well as the introduction of the Durham breed of cattle. Sinoir practically adopts the latter view, for he considers that the crossing with the Durham breed, while increasing the precocity, has diminished the powers of resistance of the indigenous cattle.
But in course of time these ideas have become modified, and investigation has taken a new direction. Detroye regarded the disease as a microbic and easily transmissible disorder, while Galtier in the following year described it as merely a chronic hæmorrhagic cystitis, produced by the consumption of irritant plants in animals previously suffering from distomatosis. In Germany, Arnold attributed “stallroth” to coccidia developing in the epithelium of the vesical mucous membrane.
Cruzel considered the disease to be due entirely to poor feeding. Boudeaud thought the same. He says that hæmaturia affected one-tenth of the whole of the oxen in the south of the Indre and the north of the Creuze, in parts where the arable soil is thin and poor in phosphoric acid. Furthermore, he suggests that dressings with lime and phosphates would result in the disappearance of hæmaturia.
We cannot admit that poor forage and feeding alone are sufficient to produce hæmaturia, for one frequently sees poorly nourished animals pass through all the stages of wasting and most profound cachexia without ever showing signs of this particular ailment. Besides, hæmaturia may attack animals in good condition.
Detroye’s early opinion as to the infectious or microbic nature of the disease seems scarcely more acceptable, for it now appears certain that the organism originally described is incapable of producing the disease.
Galtier’s theory is still less admissible. According to the Lyons professor, hæmaturia occurs only in animals suffering from distomatosis. The liver, he says, being affected by the growth of liver flukes, no longer performs its proper work of destroying toxins, and if under these conditions the animals eat improper food containing ranunculaceæ, sedges, rushes, etc., the toxic principles of these plants are absorbed. Then, he adds, these principles being no longer destroyed, are eliminated by the kidneys, their stay in the bladder causes irritation, and hæmorrhagic cystitis is set up, this being afterwards maintained by microbic agents in the bladder.