CATTLE-PLAGUE, any plague by which large numbers of cattle are destroyed. Such plagues have existed at intervals, more or less, in all countries and in all ages. Among the severer visitations in centuries preceding the 19th may be mentioned a great plague which arose in Hungary in 1711, whence it spread to other countries, destroying in the next three years about 1,500,000 head of cattle. A second visitation, which affected England and the west of Europe between 1745 and 1756 caused the death of 3,000,000 cattle. See RINDERPEST.
Several of the diseases of cattle are due to insects, including that called apleuro-pneu monia" or 'Texas cattle fever," which is caused by a blood-inhabiting sporozoon that is carried by ticks from an infected animal to a healthy one, communicating the disease. Cattle bred in the Southern States have become practically immune, but the disease affects and kills north ern cattle. The natural limit of the tick con cerned (Boo philus onnu/atus) nearly coincides with Mason & Dixon's line, and Federal laws prohibit the shipping north of any cattle from south of this line, except between 15 Novem ber and 15 February. Other species of this
same genus of ticks transmit similar cattle dis eases in various parts of the world, especially the "blue tick' (B. decoloratus) of South Africa. The remedy is to dip the cattle in vats of cotton-seed oil or some similar mixture. (See CATTLE-TICK). The appellation "cattle plague" is also loosely given to another disease among cattle in the United States, which is otherwise known as "lumpy-jaw," a most vir ulent and incurable affection. Experiments have been time and again ineffectually tried to find a cure for this, though large governmental encouragement has been offered. A rigid amination of cattle is made by government in at all receiving and shipping ports. e CATTLE, DISEASES OF. CATTLE-TICK, or TEXAS-FEVER