SMALLPOX IN SHEEP

SMALLPOX IN SHEEP (Variola ovina), although resembling the smallpox of men, is a distinct disease, not communicable either by contagion or inoculation to men or children, or even to dogs or goats. It prevailed as an epizootic in England in 1277, was well known for more than 200 years previous to that date, but in more modern times it did not invade the country until 1847, when it broke out in a farm near Windsor, and quickly spread throughout Norfolk and the eastern counties, and in the summer of 1862 in Wiltshire, near Devizes. It is common on the continent of Europe. Variolous sheep or infected skins appear in both cases to have imported the disease from abroad. About ten days after exposure to contagion the infected sheep become feverish, have a muco-purulent nasal discharge, and a hot tender skin. The red pimples which first appear in about three days become white, and afterwards leave scabs or ulcers. The weakness is great, and the mortality varies from 25 to 90 per cent. Good food and nursing are the appropriate remedies. Promptly and carefully must the sick be separated from the sound; but if the spread of the disorder be not thus immediately checked the whole of the sound flock should be inoculated. The disease thus artificially produced appears in ten days, runs a mild course, occasions a loss of from two to five per cent., and in three weeks the disorder is got rid of and all risk of contagion over.