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Scabies is a most troublesome skin disease, affecting all domestic animals and man. Its cause is a small parasite, the itch mite, which is related to the spiders. There are many species, and almost an innumerable variety of these mites, each of which causes a particular kind of itch, or scab.

Itch mites are grouped into three genera, the species of each genus having habits differing considerably from those of the other groups.

These are (1) the Sarcoptes, (2) the Psoroptes, (3) the Chorioptes. Nearly every domestic animal is subject to the attacks of a species from each of these groups, consequently to several kinds of scab. Nearly all of the itch mites of our domestic animals will affect man, producing slight, but only temporary, attacks of the same disease. The Sarcoptes, however, may become very serious. The latter, with the Psoroptes, are the more important of the three groups. Figures *1, a and 1, b represent the male and female of Psoroptes communis, the cause of scab in sheep. A variety of this mite, P. communis, var. bovis, is the cause of the common cattle itch. Figures *2, a and 2, b represent the male and female Sarcoptes scabiei, distinct varieties of which affect the horse, sheep, goat, dog, cat, pig and man.

The Psoroptes are the larger mites, as shown by the relative sizes

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of the figures which are magnified fifty diameters. A keen eye can detect the Psoroptes as minute specks, but the Sarcoptes are microscopic.

The Psoroptes live on the surface of the skin, attaching themselves to the hair, wool or projecting scales and live by sucking the blood and lymph from the skin of the animal. The Sarcoptes live in tunnels or burrows which they make under the skin. These peculiar habits of the mites explain why some forms of mange are easily curable, and why others resist the application of the most heroic remedies.

The common sheep scab and cattle mange belong to the first class. Dipping is the effective treatment. Two dippings are necessary to produce a cure, the first dip kills all the mites, but does not destroy their eggs which are always present in large numbers. After a few days the eggs hatch, and the young mites are destroyed by a second dipping that is given a week or ten days after the first.

The treatment of Sarcoptic mange consists in the persistent application, at short intervals, of various parasiticides, and proper dietetic treatment. Some cases are practically incurable.

*Neumann.

SCABIES

(Scab)

In Sheep.

The control of sheep scab in Ohio is a very important matter, and on account of the thorough organization of the work, with the co-operation of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture, has been crowned with a great degree of success.

The counties from which the disease was reported in 1904 are given in the table below. The number of affected sheep found in each county upon investigation, and ordered dipped by the board, and the number that were found to have been shipped out of the county to the various abattoirs at which federal inspectors are stationed, are given in separate columns. Where it was possible to locate the source of the infection this also is indicated.

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It should be noted that in every case it was possible to trace the origin of the disease to some point outside of the state. The regulations that were issued for the control of this disease will be found in the appendix.

MANGE IN HORSES.

(Sarcoptic Mange.)

Sarcoptic mange was discovered among a number of horses near Gilmore, in Tuscarawas county. The disease was located on three different farms and six animals were found to be affected. Investigations leading to the discovery of the disease were begun June 7, 1904. All affected animals were at once ordered under strict quarantine, treatment

was prescribed, and on November 4th, all animals having completely recovered, the quarantine was removed. At the present time the disease is not known to exist in the state.

The origin of the outbreak above described seems to have been some livery stable in Newcomerstown, in which horses affected with the disease were temporarily stabled. No definite information could, however, be obtained on this question.

MANGE IN CATTLE.

The existence of this disease was reported by Dr. E. P. Schaffter, Inspector for the Bureau of Animal Industry, at Cleveland. A carload of cattle affected with mange had been received from a shipper in Leipsic, Putnam county. Investigation showed that these cattle had been shipped to Leipsic some months before, from the West. They had been fed on several farms in the vicinity of Leipsic and had come in contact with another herd of cattle. As a precautionary measure these farms, and cattle, were held in quarantine until investigation showed that no further traces of the disease existed in the neighborhood.

TUBERCULOSIS

In Cattle.

The work with tuberculosis has been along the same lines that were followed in previous years. Whenever requests were received, dairy herds were tested with tuberculin and the owners were instructed as to the best methods of keeping their herds free from the disease in future.

Although requests of this kind were rather numerous, only a comparatively few herds were actually visited and examined. As stated in the last annual report, the reason for this was that in most cases the owners were unwilling to comply with the conditions imposed by the Board, viz., the destruction of all affected animals, or the destruction of those in an advanced stage of the disease, permanent quarantine of those less affected, and sterilization of the milk from the quarantined animals, before the milk or its products should be offered for sale.

The reluctance of some owners to sacrifice their cattle, rather than to send them to market and realize some return from them, regardless of the injury to the unsuspecting buyer, will be an insurmountable obstacle to the successful control of tuberculosis, until provisions are made by the state to bear at least a part of the burden.

This is done by many other states, and in most of these, but notably in Pennsylvania, the results have been extremely gratifying. In the latter state the extent of tuberculosis is said to have been reduced fully one half within the four or five years that the work has been in progress.

Judging from the results of the few investigations that have thus far been made by the Board, tuberculosis must be far less prevalent in Ohio than seems to be the case in some other states. The following quoted from the report of the State Veterinarian of Pennsylvania, (Dr. Leonard Pearson), will be of interest in this connection:

"Without control, we have every reason to expect tuberculosis to become as common among the live stock of this country as it is in the

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Showing counties in which tuberculin tests were made by the Board during the past year.

old infected regions abroad, where in large cities from one-half to twothirds of the cattle are infected and where in some countries, as in the Kingdom of Saxony, thirty per cent. of the cattle that are killed for food are found to contain alterations of this disease.

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