Investigation into the disease of sheep called 'scrapie' (Traberkrankheit: la tremblante) with especial reference to its association with sarcosporidiosis.

  • M'Gowan, J. P.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Investigation into the disease of sheep called 'scrapie' (Traberkrankheit: la tremblante) with especial reference to its association with sarcosporidiosis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    destroyed some in every flock round this County [Wiltshire] and made great havoc in many. The sheep most subject to it are two teeth. It is not infectious, but hereditary, and undoubtedly runs in the blood. ... I have examined a i&w, and found the viscera all sound. I have blooded one and found no inflammatory crust. I can neither myself imagine nor find one who can venture even to conjecture the cause. [Italics mine.—J, P. M'G.] rrom the two last quotations it v^^ill be seen, amongst other things, that the goggly sheep sufiered from itchiness, that they had paresis of their muscles, especially of the hind- quarters; that the goggly sheep were clearly differentiated from sturdy sheep; that the disease was causing great havoc in Wiltshire about 1770; that the two teeth sheep were most subject to it; and that the disease was believed to be hereditary. The following, from a communication in the Bath Papers (4) on the Wiltshire breed, again emphasises the presence of the disease in that county, and also incidentally indicates a method of prevention: This breed is liable to a disorder called the goggles, which sometimes occasions very heavy losses. The only method of prevention is entirely changing the flock once in eight or ten years. Claridge (5), writing in the Bath Papers in 1795 about Dorsetshire, incidentally shows the presence of the disease in that county, and emphasises the itchy nature of the goggles. He says:— It is incumbent on me to take notice of a disorder peculiar to sheep which is sometimes fatally experienced in this county, called the goggles: it attacks them at all ages, and no remedy is at present known for it. The first symptom is a violent itching, which is very soon succeeded by a dizziness in the head, staggering, and a weakness in the back as if the spinal marrow was affected, under which they sometimes languish a few weeks. This disorder has been known to be fatal to the greatest part of a flock, and is considered as the most calamitous circumstance the sheep owners have to dread. It is very difficult to assign the cause of this disorder, but some of the old-fashioned farmers think that as no such disease existed prior to the introduction of the breed from other counties, consequently its origin may be imputed to this cause. In a footnote to this paper the editor of the Bath papers says:— The subject is important in proportion to the destruction made in flocks by this disease, even were it peculiar to the county of