The Cattle Plague

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 14, 1865

The Cattle Plague.

THE following article, in reference to the distressing plague among cattle, in various localities in Europe, is from the Scientific American. The papers have been alive with accounts of this epidemic for some time, but doubtless the following is as reliable as any. It is probably a faint fulfillment of that ancient prophecy, “I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast.” Zeph. i, 2, 3. What may not take place, when “God rises up?” G.

The disease which has been prevailing among horned cattle in Europe was, at last accounts, unchecked, and so great were its ravages that in some quarters of Germany not an animal is to be seen. The disease spreads rapidly when an infected animal appears in any district, and is liable to be spread by persons carrying the infection in their clothes. It has not yet appeared in this country, and it is to be hoped, will not. The symptoms of the malady, as yet unnamed, are a general lassitude of demeanor, a discharge of mucus from the eyes, twitchings of the muscles about the neck and shoulders, trembling of the whole body, a free discharge of matter from the nostrils. Diarrhea is also present, and in course of time dysentery appears. The average duration of the disease, from its commencement till death supervenes, is three days; and fat animals, or those that have been well cared for, suffer the most. Almost every beast attacked dies—the average deaths being 90 per cent.

As it is by no means impossible that this malady may be introduced into this country by accident, carelessness, or design, the Agricultural Report (official) suggests that the greatest care be exercised with regard to imported cattle, and that a quarantine for such beasts be established at certain points, so that they could remain in confinement until it was positively ascertained that they were not infected.

As this disease is contagious, and affects every part of the animal—hides, hoofs and horns—it will be seen that stringent measures are necessary to prevent the cupidity of some from endangering the interests of many. In Germany the hides are so cut as to be useless, the bones are crushed and buried, and the horns and hoofs burned, or otherwise disposed of, so as to prevent any possible chance of their ever being made use of. In addition to this, a strong military force is drawn about the infected spots, and communication with them entirely cut off, the commissary receiving such supplies as he may need at the end of a long pole. The disease, as we have said, has extended to England from communicating with Russia, and numbers of cattle have already died. Whether the same caution as regards the hoofs, etc., is observed there as in Germany, we do not know, but we hope that our Government is sufficiently alive to its interests to take the most stringent measures to prevent the plague from reaching these shores.