ON THE NATURE OF LUMBAR PARALYSIS IN THE GOAT

Abstract

Among the noble races of goat imported here from Switzerland and their offsprings there has been a disease characterized by paralysis of lumbar region, occuring mostly during summer and autumn, while the common races of goat and other domesticated animals having never been attacked. Its introduction into a farm is caused by the importation of diseased or apparently healthy goats from the locality where the disease is prevailing. The appearance of the disease is always sudden; in a slight case the affected animal is dull and inactive, with the weak hind quarters, but if severer it is lying down, unable to rise up. At autopsy there are no remarkable and characteristic changes in internal organs, but always marked sclerosis of the spinal cord and inflammation of the pia.
A certain streptococcus was isolated from the spinal fluid in all eleven cases which were bacteriologically examined, besides streptococcus a monococcus and a bacillus were found in a few cases. However the streptococcus could never be found in the spinal fluid of healthy goats and other diseased or healthy animals. Eleven healthy goats inoculated with a culture of the streptococcus showed symptoms and anatomical changes similar to those of the natural cases.
Conclusion. The lumbar paralysis in the goat is an infectious disease affecting the noble races, characterized anatomically by meningitis spinalis and sclerosis spinalis, its specific cause being a streptococcus.