Equine Piroplasmosis, or “Biliary Fever”

Abstract

The disease known as equine piroplasmosis is one possessing great importance to the farming community of certain portions of Cape Colony, especially to importers, for the reason that recently imported horses sometimes develop a very acute and often fatal form of this malady. A similar disease attacks mules. The recently reported outbreak of piroplasmosis amongst donkeys in the Transvaal, if not identical, is probably very closely allied to the malady affecting horses and mules. A great mortality amongst donkeys at Lydenburg was due to piroplasmosis. Equine piroplasmosis requires further investigation, it being unknown how the disease is disseminated, although most authorities consider that the parasite is transmitted by the agency of a tick.