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Show Dean Warns Against Quack Remedies For Horse Brain Fover By E. J. Maynard, Dean School of Agriculture, U. S. A. C. There have been during the past few days a great many simple remedies rem-edies suggested for treatment of horses in the recent epidemic of brain fever, or equine encephalo-yelitis, encephalo-yelitis, which has raged throughout the northern portion of Utah. Pouring Pour-ing oil in ears, application of tobacco tobac-co poultices, drenching with turpentine turpen-tine and warm milk, and excessive bleeding have been among the "remedies" "rem-edies" advocated by quacks and o-thers. o-thers. As a matter of fact, this disease has been ctenniteiy laenimea Dy trained veterinary pathologists and is known to be caused by a virus or invisible germ which attacks and destioys the norvj cells of the brain. It has been shown to be very similar sim-ilar to the disease of infantile paralysis paral-ysis and sleeping sickness in humans hum-ans and as with these diseases there is much yet to be learned in regard to its prevention and treatment, but definite progress is being made. At present veterinary pathologists in several states, including those at the Utah Agricultural experiment station, are working steadily in an effort to solve this problem, which is hardly one for which a solution ran be expected for some time to come. Under such circumstances all that ii known concerning this disease dis-ease and treatment and preventive measures may be secured from competent com-petent veterinarians whose technical techni-cal knowledge can at least indicate where any specific treatment may have merit or not. First coming to notice in Kansas, Kans-as, eastern Colorado and Nebraska in 1912-13 and 14 where it was called call-ed the Kansas horse disease, e-cuine e-cuine encephalomyelitis has spread to include known outbreaks in Nevada. Ne-vada. California and several of the Cat eastern states during the past few years. Today there are at least six institutions which include state agricultural colleges at California and Nevada, state universities of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Stanford, Stan-ford, as well as the Army Medical college and the United States Department De-partment of Agriculture that have been working on this problem. Veterinarians at the Nevada and California universities have been working on the disease for the past two years and have published bulletins bulle-tins "covering their findings. The-ravages of this disease in the recent outbreak in northern Utah were more severe than any previous outbreaks on record, and this outbreak out-break serves to emphasize the need for additional resources with which to continue studies aimed toward a definite solution. Trained veterinary pathologists arc striving to solve the intricate I problems of this serious malady, es pecially means of transportation and preventive measures. They have made considerable progress but as yet there has apparently been no dependable preventative developed. |
