Investigation into the disease of sheep called "scrapie" (Traberkrankheit, la tremblante) : with especial reference to its association with sarcosporidiosis / by J.P. M'Gowan ; with an appendix on a case of Johne's disease in the sheep.
- M'Gowan, J. P. (John Pool)
- Date:
- 1914
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Investigation into the disease of sheep called "scrapie" (Traberkrankheit, la tremblante) : with especial reference to its association with sarcosporidiosis / by J.P. M'Gowan ; with an appendix on a case of Johne's disease in the sheep. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![contribute a very unusual case which, as it took place in a country, in a district, and in a flock where the disease was never seen before or after, may be of greater value than one taken from a place where, from the prevalence of the disease in the neighbourhood, its appearance might be attributed to other causes. In the flocks of the Royal Bavarian State Property Administration of Schleissheim, with a stock of Electoral and Negretti races of varied crossings, a flock of over 100 head was brought in from a Silesian Stock farm in 1827. This flock was a victim of the ‘trotting disease,” and from that time forward for a long period the disease raged in Schleissheim, although the rams descended directly from the diseased flock were, as far as possible, precluded from breeding. |Italics mine.—J. P. M‘G.] The transmission of the disease to healthy sheep by contagion was taken for granted by many, including Richthofen. He advocates a theory still accepted, that the transmission takes place either by copulation or is effected by means of the nasal mucus secreted towards the close of the disease. This, however, could never be authenticated. Even the experiments specially made by Thaer, Kanert, Ernst, Storig, Spinola, Funke, with a view of effecting contagion, as also the vaccina- tions undertaken for the same purpose, had always a negative result. There can therefore be no question about the contagiousness of the disease. The District Veterinary Surgeon in Polish Wurtemberg says at ws empossible to accept the theory of the contagion of the “ trotting disease,” because then no first-class sheep could exist wm that dvstrict at all, seeeng the disease was much more widespread than people acknowledged. [Italics mine.—J. P. M‘G.] Prophylaxis.—Having enumerated above the primary and more remote causes of the “‘ trotting disease,” the means of guarding against it may be summed up in the following points. Do not rear sheep with too fine wool, which have exceedingly delicate bodies and too weak constitutions ; give preference rather to strongly-built robust animals, feed them from youth on with appropriate regularity and natural food, and neither pamper nor spoil them, Avoid premature and too prolonged application for breeding purposes of the males and also of the females; do not give too many ewes to the rams, and do not breed too long among closest relations. When causal conditions well known in the locality begin to show, try if possible to neutralise and avoid them ; and, as far as you can, try to prevent them from getting hold of the flock. Should this fail, the acquisition of a more robust race, or the relinquishment of sheep-rearing altogether, remains the only method of getting rid of the disease. In buying rams and ewes be careful not to get them from flocks infested by the “trotting disease.” The most careful investigation rs here necessary, for in such flocks an attempt 1s always made to conceal the fact as well as possible. If the disease breaks out in a flock, under no circumstances employ the suspected animals for breeding ; on the contrary, kill at once and spare not, especially at the outbreak of the disease, every anvmal in which the evil has been confirmed, and giwe unceasing and most careful atiention to ther offspring, so that any suspected animals may, without delay, be prevented from breeding. [Italics mine.—J. P. M‘G.] )](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32862040_0038.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
