Investigations into the Nature, Causation, and Prevention of Texas or Southern Cattle Fever Page: 93
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TRANSMISSION OF TEXAS FEVER.
could mature and infect the ground. The object of this group of ex-
periments was to find out if the disease could be conveyed from South-
ern to Northern stock on the same inclosure without the intervention
of ticks.
(2) Fields were infected by matured ticks and susceptible cattle
placed on them to determine whether Texas fever could be produced
without the presence of southern cattle.
(3) Susceptible northern cattle were infected by placing on them
young ticks hatched artificially, i. e., in closed dishes in the laboratory.
These three lines were not followed simultaneously because, for ii-
stance, the fact that the disease can be produced by placing young ticks
on cattle was discovered in 1890, and hence only tried then and there-
after. In giving the details of the various experiments we shall adhere
not to the classification given above, but rather to the chronological
order in which the experiments were performed. This is necessary in
order to describe successively the experiments of the same year which
were more or less connected with one another and also to show the
process by which the various facts concerning the cattle tick came to
our knowledge.
The disease was introduced into one field each year by North Caro-
lina cattle brought here for this purpose. In 1890 a field was infected
by cattle from Texas.
The field experiments were all conducted on the experiment station of
the Bureau of Animal Industry within half a mile of the limits of the
city of Washington. The arrangement of the various experimental
fields is shown for each year on a plat of the station grounds. The
isolated condition of the field in use in any given season may be seen
by an inspection of these plats. They are either separated from one
another by a piece of ground remaining permanently free from infection
or by a lane or by a strip of ground purposely fenced off between them.
No two fields in use are thus separated merely by a fence. In every
case, with the exception to be noted, a strip of ground intervenes which
is at least 36 feet wide. A small brook passes through a portion of the
grounds as is shown in the various plats, and the space between the
fields along this brook is about 20 feet wide.
EXPERIMENTS OF 1889 (FIRST SERIES).
To carry on the experiments in the early part of the season of 1889,
seven head of cattle were collected in Craven County, N. C., which is
a portion of the permanently infected territory. On June 25 they were
shipped by steamer from New Berne, N. C., and they arrived at the
station near Washington June 27. They had thus been two days on
the way. These animals were rather thin and a large number of cattle
ticks (Bodphilus bovis) in various stages of development were attached
to them. Only a few were full grown.93
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Smith, Theobold & Kilborne, Fred Lucius. Investigations into the Nature, Causation, and Prevention of Texas or Southern Cattle Fever, book, 1893; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143538/m1/93/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.