Abstract
A joint disease of unknown etiology broke out among goats on a farm in the Shikoku region. Its main symptoms were swelling and pain of joints of the four limbs and lameness. It was diagnosed as chronic polyarthritis on the basis of histopathological findings.
1. There were no specific findings on the components of blood.
2. Anaerobic Corynebacterium organisms, streptococci, and staphylococci were isolated from lesions of the affected joints, liver, spleen, and kidney.
3. Animals involved in clinical disease were fewer in a group administered with an antibiotic than in an untreated control group in an experiment on prevention of the disease in question. Tetracycline and erythromycin exhibited a slight therapeutical effect against this disease.
