A practical guide to meat inspection / by Thomas Walley.

  • Walley, Thomas, 1842-1894.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical guide to meat inspection / by Thomas Walley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    when an animal is labouring under an attack of common cold^ In this way, many hill sheep become the victims of the malady. In addition to the ordinary phenomena of cold, there is, fre- quently, ulceration of the mucous membrane of the nasal cavities, and of the skin of the nostrils, and also sore throat and laryngitis, followed by ulceration of the involved parts. Unless fever is extreme or the blood becomes poisoned, recovery is the rule, but a localised pyce?nia, involving the face, the head, and the throat, and extending to the lungs, frequently arises as a sequel. To such cases the remarks made under the head of pyaemia apply. If the acute lesions become so aggravated as to necessitate slaughter, the systemic conditions presented on autopsy will be similar to those seen -in acute inflammatory affections generally, associated with those of blood depravation. Malignant Catarrhal Fever is most largely seen in cattle and sheep that have been subjected to the prolonged influence of a foul atmosphere, e.g., in transit by sea in the holds of ships, when the raging of a storm has necessitated the battening down of the hatches; or where sewage gas is allowed to escape into the houses in which animals are confined. The symptoms do not usually make their appearance until a space of about forty-eight hours after the exposure has elapsed. There is marked fever with catarrhal symptoms, followed by great prostration; the mucous membrane of the nostrils becomes ulcerated, the mouth foetid, and even the breath exhales a sickly odour, profuse diarrhoea sets in, the discharges having a sickly foetid odour. In addition, there is often a cough, and the lungs frequently become emphysematous or congested. The animal may die in a comatose state. If the animal is killed in the early stages of the malady, there may not be any evidence of the existence of a grave disorder, and condemnation of the flesh is scarcely justified; but if the disease has been advanced, the usual evidence of the existence of an important form of fever will be found in the blood H