NR ASHS
AU Sarraet,M.
TI A case of scrapie in an cow
OT Un cas de tremblante sur un boeuf
QU Revue Médicale Vétérinaire 1883; 7: 310-2
IA http://www.mad-cow.org/boeuf.html
PT journal article
VT
La tremblante est consideree comme une maladie exclusive du mouton; le fait suivant prouve que cette nevrose peut aussi attaquer les animaux de l'espece bovine.
Le sujet sur lequel il m'a ete donne de faire cette observation interessante est un boeuf de race gasconne sous poil gris clair, age de 8 ans, apparienant a M. Menville, fermier a Rieux.
Dans les dernier jours du mois de novembre 1881, cet animal fut en proie a un prurit si intense de la base de la queue, qu'il se grattait contre tous les objets qui se trouvaient a sa portee. A l'ecurie, il se frottait avec une veritable fureur contre la stalle ou contre son voisin, a la prairie, contre tous le arbres qu'il pouvait rencontrer; attele, contre la partie anterieure de la charrette ou, s'il ne pouvait y atteindre, il se contournait pour se frotter contre le timon.
Cette violente demangeaison avait cause une excoriation large et profonde et, par moment, une hemorrhagie assez abondante de la base de la queue.
Du reste, a part ce prurit incommode qui torturait sans cesse l'animal et un certain degre d'amaigrissement facile a expliquer, il ne presentait pas d'autre symptome digne d'etre note.
Il en fut ainsi jusqu'au 13 decembre. Le matin de ce jour, le prurit toujours tres vif semblait avoir reagi sur l'etat general du boeuf en question. L'appetit avait diminue, la rumination etait lente et rare. Il tenait la tete tres basse ou enfoncee dans la mangeoire; dans cette position, il appuyait parfois le front contre le mur et poussait a la facon d'un cheval atteint du vertige. Il ne sortait de cet etat comateux que pour frotter sa queue avec frenesie.
En meme temps que ces symptomes s'etaient manifestes du cote de l'encephale, une paralysie evidente commencait a envahir le train posterieur; dans les mouvements auxquels il se livrait pour satisfaire le prurit qui le devorait pour ainsi dire, l'animal tombait de l'arriere-train et ce n'etait qu'avec peine qu'il parvenait a se relever. La demarche etait mal assuree; les members posterieurs etaient vacillants et trainaient sur le sol.
Le 16, tous ces symptomes se sont aggraves; l'appetit et la rumination sont entierement suspendus; la paralysie a fait des progres remarquables; l'animal peut a peine se tenir sur ses jambes. Enon [I don't know what this word is supposed to be. Perhaps, "alors," or " et puis," or an earlier version that's no longer in common parlance], vers les trois heures du soir; il tombe pour ne plus se relever. Il est etendu sur le cote droit en decubitus lateral; dans cette situation, l'oeil est pirouettant dans l'orbite, la pupille fortement dilatee et la conjonctive tres injectee; la panse est tres meteorisee par suite l'inrumination et de la position du malade. La respiration est tres lente; sans quelques legers mouvements convulsifs des quatre membres et une certain conservation de la sensibilite generale, l'animal semblerait mort.
Diagnostique. - Au debut, alors que le prurit existait seul, il etait aise de prendre cette affection pour un simple prurigo. Mais lorsqu'est survenue la complication de phenomenes cerebraux et surtout la paralysie, un rapprochement s'est fait instinctivement dans mon esprit entre la maladie dont je viens de faire la symptomatologie et la tremblante du mouton.
J'ai analyse comparativement ces deux affections et j'ai trouve entre elles des rapports si intimes, que je n'hesite pas a affirmer que ja'ai eu affaire a la forme prurigineuse de la tremblante.
Pronostique. - La tremblante, chez le mouton, consitutue une maladie grave, puisqu'elle guerit rarement. D'apres le cas que j'ai eu la bonne fortune d'observer, elle semblerait encore plus grave sur le boeuf; elle parcourrait plus rapidement ses periodes et se terminerait d'une facon aussi malheureuse.
Dans l'espece, l'etat m'a paru desespere; aussi j'ai cru toute medication inutile et j'ai conseille au proprietaire l'abatage du boeuf qui a ete vendu pour la basse boucherie.
Übersetzung ins Englische:
Scrapie is considered an illness exclusive to sheep; the facts below prove that this nervous condition may also attack animals of the bovine species.
The subject on which these interesting observations were made is an 8-year-old steer of the Gasconne breed with a light gray hide, belonging to M. Menville, a farmer in Rieux, France.
In the last days of the month of November 1881, this animal experienced an itching so intense at the base of his tail that he scratched himself against all nearby objects. In the stable, he rubbed with a veritable furor against the stall or against his neighbor; in the pasture, against all the trees he could find; harnessed, against the front part of the cart, or, if he could not reach that, he would twist himself around to scratch against the shaft.
This violent scratching caused a wide and deep abrasion and, after time, substantial bleeding at the base of the tail.
Apart from this annoying pruritis which tormented this animal without let up and a certain degree of easily explained weight loss, he did not exhibit any symptoms worthy of note.
This went on until 13 Dec 1881. In the morning of that day, the itching as intense as ever appeared to have affected the general state of the steer in question. His appetite was diminished, and his rumination was slow and sporadic. He held his head very low or plunged it into his manger; in this position, he pressed his forehead against the wall and pushed in the same manner as a dizzy horse. He only came out of this comatose state to scratch his tail [rear] with frenzy.
At the same time that these symptoms were manifested in the head [brain] area, an obvious paralysis began to affect the hindquarters; during the movement he used to relieve his itching which consumed him, so to speak, the animal fell on its hindquarters and could get up only with difficulty. His gait was unsteady; his hind limbs wobbled and dragged on the floor.
On the 16th, all of these symptoms became more acute; his appetite and rumination stopped entirely; his paralysis progressed remarkably; the animal could barely stay on his feet. Then, towards three p.m., he fell, never to rise again. He lay stretched out on his right side; in this position, his eye was spinning in its orbit, the pupil intensely dilated and the conjunctiva very bloodshot; the rumen strongly inflated as a consequence of his ceased rumination and his [lateral] position. Respiration was very slow; were it not for some mild convulsive movements of the four limbs and a certain preservation of general sensibility, the animal would appear dead.
Diagnosis: In the beginning, when there was only the itching, it was easy to think this affliction was merely a simple pruritis. But once the complication of the cerebral phenomena set in and especially the paralysis, a connection was instinctively made in my mind between the illness whose symptomatology I have just described and scrapie in sheep.
I made a comparative analysis of the two afflictions and I found such a close a resemblance between them that I don't hesitate to affirm that I was dealing with the pruritic form of scrapie.
Prognosis: Scrapie, in sheep, is a serious disease because recovery is rare. According to the case which I had the good fortune to observe, scrapie seems even more serious in cattle; it runs its course more rapidly and ends in just as bad a manner.
In the species [cattle], the condition appeared to me to be hopeless; I also believed any medication was useless, and I advised the owner to butcher the steer that was sold for cheap [low class] meat.
AD Par M. Sarraet, veterinaire a Carbone (Haute-Garonne)
SP französisch
PO France