REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 13 



gate vaccine virus at an establishment near Detroit and that the source 

 of the infection was contaminated Japanese vaccine virus. Vigorous 

 measures similar to those employed in 1902-1903 at once were put 

 into effect, and the disease was stamped out in about five months, 

 at an expense to the Department of Agriculture of approximately 

 $300,000, and to the States of $113,000. The Federal Government 

 paid two-thirds and the States one-third of the appraised value of the 

 animals slaughtered. One hundred and fifty-seven premises were 

 infected and 3,636 animals were destroyed. 



In all the early outbreaks the contagion was introduced with im- 

 ported animals. Since the establishment by the Department of Agri- 

 culture of a stringent system of inspection and quarantine of 

 imported live stock no infection from that source has occurred. On 

 subsequent occasions the disease evidently has been brought in with 

 contaminated products or materials, and not by means of live ani- 

 mals. Early conditions were unfavorable to its extension and made 

 its control possible without rigorous measures. The limited move- 

 ment of live stock, the comparatively small extent of commerce and 

 transportation, and the relative infrequency of travel at that period 

 all tended to restrict the spread of the infection. 



The 191Ii. outbreak and difficulties of diagnosis. — The latest inva- 

 sion, discovered near Niles, Mich., proved to be the most serious and 

 extensive ever known in this country. Toward the end of August, 

 1914, the attention of the State veterinarian of Michigan was called 

 by local veterinary practitioners to a disease resembling foot-and- 

 mouth disease in two or three herds of cattle in Berrien County. It 

 was not until October 15 that it was recognized positively in the de- 

 partment as the foot-and-mouth malady. This delay in diagnosis was 

 due to a combination of circumstances, especially to the fact that the 

 infection at first was unusually mild and the lesions were obscured 

 or obliterated by lesions of necrosis, or decayed tissue. 



After visiting the locality the State veterinarian consulted an as- 

 sistant veterinary inspector on the meat-inspection force of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry at Detroit (in the absence of the in- 

 spector in charge), and together, on September 3, they made an 

 examination of the cattle. They failed, however, to recognize the 

 affection as foot-and-mouth disease on account of its mild type, the 

 absence of characteristic lesions, and the presence of lesions hav- 



