OCR Text |
Show treatment may have merit or not. First coming to notice in Kansas, eastern Colorado and Nebraska in 1912-13 and 14 when it was called the Kansas horse disease, equine encephalomelitis has spread to include in-clude known outbreaks in Nevada, i California and several of the far eastern states during the past few i years. Today there are at least six I institutions which include state agri-! agri-! cultural college at California and Nevade, state universities of Maryland, Mary-land, Pennsylvania and Stanford, as jweCl as the Army Medical college and the United States Department Of Agriculture that have been working work-ing on this problem, i Veterinarians at the Nevada and California universities have been working on the disease for the past two years and have published bulletins bul-letins 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 are striving to solve the intricate problems of this serious malady, i especially means of transportation and preventive measures. They have made considerable progress but as yet there has apparently been no dependable preventative developed. w DEAN WARNS AGAINST QUACK REMEDIES FOR HORSE BRAIN FEVER By E. J. Maynard, Dean School of Agriculture Utah State Agricultural Agri-cultural College. There have been during the past few days a great many simple remedies reme-dies suggested for treatment of horses in the recent epidemic of brain fever, or equine encephalomyelitis, encephalo-myelitis, which has raged throughout through-out the northern portion of Utah. Pouring oil in ears, application of tobacco poultices, drenching with turpentine and warm milk, and excessive ex-cessive bleeding have been among the "remedies" advocated by 'quacks' and others. As a matter of fact, this disease has been definitely identified by trained veterinary pathologists and is known to be caused by a virus or invisible germ which attacks and destroys the nerve ceils of the brain. It has been shown to be very similar simi-lar to the diseases of infantile paralysis para-lysis and sleeping sickness in hu-' mans and as with these diseases there is much yet to be learned in regard to its prevention and treatment, treat-ment, but definite progress is being ; made. At present veterinary patho- ; logists in several states, including1 those at the Utah Agricultural experiment ex-periment station, are working steadily stead-ily in an effort to solve this problem, which is hardly one for which a' solution can be expected for some! time to come. Under such circum-stances circum-stances all that is known concerning concern-ing this disease and treatment and preventive measures may be secured secur-ed from competent veterinarians whose technical knowledge can at least indicate whether any specific |