80 ANJ^'UAL EEPOETS OF DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the necrosis bacillus, which was considered to be sufficient to explain 

 the lesions as being those of necrotic stomatitis, although this organ- 

 ism has since been shown to have been a secondary invader. 



The State veterinarian and the president of the live-stock sani- 

 tary conunission of Michigan on October 5 got the inspector in 

 charge of the bureau office at Detroit to go to Berrien County with 

 them for another examination. A letter from the inspector, which 

 made no diagnosis, but described certain symptoms in detail pointing 

 to the possibility of foot-and-mouth disease, was received in Wash- 

 ington on Saturday afternoon, October 10, and was the first informa- 

 tion to reach the officials at Washington giving ground for suspicion 

 that foot-and-mouth disease might be present. This inspector had 

 never had any experience with foot-and-mouth disease, and for that 

 reason made no diagnosis, although the symptoms mentioned in his 

 letter were quite characteristic. For the latter reason an expert 

 was sent from Washington to Michigan on the first train after the 

 letter was received, while calves were inoculated at the Washington 

 experiment station, and on October 15 a positive diagnosis of foot- 

 and-mouth disease was made. 



On October 12 the chief of the bureau sent the following telegram 

 to the State veterinarian : 



Advise that farms where animals now show sj^mptoms foot-and-mouth dis- 

 ease be placed in temporary quarantine until time for experiments on other 

 animals. 



This request was not carried out until later in the week, although 

 it is not known that any animals were removed from these farms in 

 the meantime. 



The long time required for the inoculated animals to show any 

 evidence of disease, as well as the slight extent to which the disease 

 had spread on the farms before its nature became known, showed that 

 at first the infection was of an exceedingly mild form, although it 

 grew in virulence as the outbreak progressed. In spite of the fact 

 that no quarantine measures had been imposed, the disease remained 

 confined to a restricted area for more than six weeks, which is very 

 unusual with foot-and-mouth disease, but very commonly observed in 

 various forms of stomatitis. 



As soon as the disease was diagnosed as foot-and-mouth disease 

 steps immediately were taken to assemble a force of inspectors, and 

 active scouting by employees of the Bureau of Animal Industry was 

 begun, which disclosed 39 infected herds in southern Michigan and 

 7 in northern Indiana. The Secretary of Agriculture then issued 

 B. A. I. Order 220, effective October 19, placing under quarantine the 

 counties of Berrien and Cass in Michigan and St. Joseph and Laporte 

 in Indiana. 



On October 28 there were indications which led to the suspicion of 

 the existence of infection in the Union Stockyards at Chicago, and 

 an order was prepared, effective October 31, quarantining these yards 

 and permitting animals to be shipped from them only for immediate 

 slaughter. The presence of the disease there was later confirmed. 

 The disease was further disseminated from large eastern stockyards. 

 As the work of eradication progressed, it was found that infected 

 and exposed animals had been shipped from various points and the 



