Glanders

Glanders, also called Farcy, specific infectious and contagious disease of solipeds (the horse, ass, and mule); secondarily, humans may become infected through contact with diseased animals or by inoculation while handling diseased tissues and making laboratory cultures of the causal bacillus. After infection, the disease usually follows a chronic course with a variable period of incubation extending from several weeks to several months. Clinical cases in solipeds are manifested by a chronic nasal discharge from one or both nostrils, with or without visible ulceration of the nasal septum; chronic enlargement and hardening of the submaxillary lymph glands without outward discharge of pus; or the presence of pustules and ulcers (farcy buds) on the skin of the hindlegs or other parts of the body. Nonclinical, or latent, cases are essentially pulmonary in type, and the lesions remain in a concealed state (occult) in the lungs as tubercle-like nodules and suppurating foci. In many latent cases, the affected animal shows slight signs of lung trouble (altered breathing).