Murrain

Murrain (Pronounced "mur'in") is a highly infectious disease of cattle and sheep. It literally means "disease" and was used in medieval 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 resulted in widespread famine during the Great Famine of 1315-1317, weakening the population of Europe before the onset of the Black Death 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."

In some parts of Scotland, force-fire was believed to cure it.