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Murrain
 
 
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Murrain is a highly infectious disease of cattle
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
 and sheep
Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
. It literally means "death" and was used in medieval
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
 times to represent just that. The population of that era had no way of identifying specific diseases in their livestock so they simply put all illnesses under one heading. There were major sheep and cattle murrains in Europe during the 14th century, which combined with the Little Ice Age
Little Ice Age

The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling occurring after a warmer North Atlantic era known as the Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Climate Optimum....
 resulted in widespread famine during the Great Famine of 1315-1317, weakening the population of Europe before the onset of the Black Death
Black Death

The Black Death, was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis , but recently attributed by some factors to other diseases....
 in 1348.

Murrain is also mentioned once in the Bible relating to the fifth plague brought upon Egypt.

Exodus 9:3: "Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain."

Pestilence
Pestilence

A pestilence is any virulent and highly infectious disease that can cause an epidemic or even a pandemic. The word can also be used about parasites causing large scale sickness and death, such as Guinea worm....
, which is mentioned 47 time in 46 verses of the Bible, can be translated "murrain" [Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon]. see Psalms
Psalms

Psalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim....
 91:3 KJV

The word in Hebrew is ?????? "deber" (Strong's # 01698), derived from the primitive root "dabar" in the sense of "to destroy".

In some parts of Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, force-fire
Force-fire

The force-fire , or a fire produced by friction, was used in folk magic practice in the Scottish Highlands up until the 19th century. Believers considered it an antidote against witchcraft, as well as the pandemic, murrain and all infectious diseases among cattle....
 was believed to cure it and in some remote regions of Cumbria
Cumbria

Cumbria is a non-metropolitan county in the North West England of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
, murrain is still used as a term for a curse
Curse

A curse is any manner of adversity thought to be inflicted by any supernatural power, such as a spell , a prayer, an imprecation, an execration, magic , witchcraft, a god, a natural force, or a spiritual being....
, specifically a curse
Curse

A curse is any manner of adversity thought to be inflicted by any supernatural power, such as a spell , a prayer, an imprecation, an execration, magic , witchcraft, a god, a natural force, or a spiritual being....
 placed upon land or livestock.






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Murrain is a highly infectious disease of cattle
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
 and sheep
Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
. It literally means "death" and was used in medieval
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
 times to represent just that. The population of that era had no way of identifying specific diseases in their livestock so they simply put all illnesses under one heading. There were major sheep and cattle murrains in Europe during the 14th century, which combined with the Little Ice Age
Little Ice Age

The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling occurring after a warmer North Atlantic era known as the Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Climate Optimum....
 resulted in widespread famine during the Great Famine of 1315-1317, weakening the population of Europe before the onset of the Black Death
Black Death

The Black Death, was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis , but recently attributed by some factors to other diseases....
 in 1348.

Murrain is also mentioned once in the Bible relating to the fifth plague brought upon Egypt.

Exodus 9:3: "Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain."

Pestilence
Pestilence

A pestilence is any virulent and highly infectious disease that can cause an epidemic or even a pandemic. The word can also be used about parasites causing large scale sickness and death, such as Guinea worm....
, which is mentioned 47 time in 46 verses of the Bible, can be translated "murrain" [Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon]. see Psalms
Psalms

Psalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim....
 91:3 KJV

The word in Hebrew is ?????? "deber" (Strong's # 01698), derived from the primitive root "dabar" in the sense of "to destroy".

In some parts of Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, force-fire
Force-fire

The force-fire , or a fire produced by friction, was used in folk magic practice in the Scottish Highlands up until the 19th century. Believers considered it an antidote against witchcraft, as well as the pandemic, murrain and all infectious diseases among cattle....
 was believed to cure it and in some remote regions of Cumbria
Cumbria

Cumbria is a non-metropolitan county in the North West England of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
, murrain is still used as a term for a curse
Curse

A curse is any manner of adversity thought to be inflicted by any supernatural power, such as a spell , a prayer, an imprecation, an execration, magic , witchcraft, a god, a natural force, or a spiritual being....
, specifically a curse
Curse

A curse is any manner of adversity thought to be inflicted by any supernatural power, such as a spell , a prayer, an imprecation, an execration, magic , witchcraft, a god, a natural force, or a spiritual being....
 placed upon land or livestock. It is believed that the medieval term has, by a process of syncreticism become synonymous with witchcraft
Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or Magic powers....
. This usage inspired the ATV
Associated TeleVision

Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a United Kingdom television company, holder of various licenses to broadcast on the ITV network from 1955 until 31 December 1981....
 television play, Murrain, written by Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale

Nigel Kneale was a Isle of Man writer, who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. Active in television, film, radio drama and prose, he wrote professionally for over fifty years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and was twice nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Best Screenplay....
, which was broadcast on 27 July 1975 as part of the channel's Against the Crowd drama strand.

See also

  • Rinderpest
    Rinderpest

    Rinderpest is an infectious virus disease of cattle, domestic American bison, and some species of wildlife. It is commonly referred to as cattle plague or steppe murrain....