158 



THE AGRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



May 12, 1906. 



ANTHRAX IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



The following extract from the Journal of the 

 Royal Ayricidtivral Societij, England, 1905, contains 

 particulars as to the occurrence of anthrax in Great 

 Britain and discusses further the use of serum as 

 a preventive against the spread of anthrax. It indicates 

 the circumstances under which the use of serum is 

 preferable to that of vaccine ■ — 



The following table shows the incidence of this disease 

 in Great Britain durhig the past five years : — 



The figures for the past year are satisfactory in the 

 sense that they show a slight decrease as compared with 

 those for 1904, but they are disai)iiointing in so far as they 

 indicate that the present methods of dealing with the disease 

 are powerless to reduce the number of outbreaks. The 

 probable explanation of this failure has been dealt with in 

 the Annual Report for the two previous years. The measures 

 enforced against anthrax have proved inadequate because 

 a large proportion of the outbreaks have no connexion with 

 antecedent cases on the same farm or premises, but are 

 caused by the use of contaminated cake, meal, and other 

 articles of diet imported from countries in which anthrax is 

 much more prevalent than it is in Great Britain. The pro- 

 visions of the Anthrax Order, insisting on prompt notification 

 of the disease and proper treatment of the carcasses of 

 animals that have died from it, are admirable as means for 

 preventing the spread of infection where the disease has 

 broken out, and from that point of view they are in most 

 cases quite effectual, as is proved by the fact that in the 

 great majority of outbreaks the losses do not exceed one 

 animal. There are, however, no practicable measures by 

 which the seeds of future outbreaks, in the shape of infected 

 foreign food materials, can be prevented from entering the 

 country, and there is therefore no reason to expect that there 

 will be any sensible decline in the number of outbreaks in 

 the future. 



The fact that the number of animals attacked in 

 outbreaks of anthrax in this country is usually very small 

 (less than two on an average) to a large extent deprives of 

 their importance the methods of protective inoculation which 

 have been utilized on a large scale in some foreign countrie.s, 

 for when a farmer has every reason to believe that an 

 outbreak is at an end with the loss of the first animal, he cannot 

 be expected to submit the rest of his stock to an operation 

 which involves some expense and trouble, and is itself not 

 altogether free from risk, nevertheless it appears to be 

 desirable to call attention here to a new method of vaccinat- 

 ing cattle and other farm animals against anthrax, which has 

 some distinct advantages over the one devised by the late 

 M. Pasteur and almost exclusively employed hitherto. In 

 the new method the animal which it is desired to protect 

 receives a sirbcutaneous injection of so-called 'protective 

 .serum.' In order to obtain a supply of this serum an animal 

 (preferably a horse) is first vaccinated with an attenuated or 

 weakened culture of the anthrax bacillus, and after that it 



has injected into its body, at intervals, gradually increasing: 

 quantities of a virulent culture of the same organism. 



After some months of this treatment the blood-serum of 

 the horse acquires protective properties, that is to say, if 

 even a small quantity of it be injected into an ox or other 

 animal the latter is for a time rendered immune against 

 anthrax. The chief advantages of this method of vaccinating 

 against anthrax are (1) that the operation is practically 

 devoid of danger, and (2) that the animal enters into 

 possession of immunity immediately. Its chief defect is 

 that the protection which it confers does not last more than 

 a fortnight, and to this has to be added the fact that the 

 serum is rather more expensive than the ' vaccins,' which 

 are used in the ordinary Pasteurian method of vaccinating. 

 The new method, in spite of these drawbacks, may be 

 recommended as a means of cutting short outbreaks, where, 

 from carelessness in dealing with the carcass of a first case 

 of anthrax, or from any other cause, there is reason to fear 

 that a number of the survivors have already become infected, 

 although they have not yet developed any symptoms of the 

 disease. Furthermore, experience which has been gained 

 abroad indicates that the life of an animal already showing 

 symptoms may sometimes be saved by giving one or more 

 large doses of the serum. 



DEPARTMENT NEWS. 



With the approval of the Right Honourable the 

 Secretary of State for the Colonies the Imperial 

 Commissioner of Agriculture will proceed to the 

 United Kingdom on duty leave on June 5 next. 



The Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture 

 returned from an official visit to the Leeward 

 Islands in S.S. 'Parima' on Tuesday, May 1. During 

 his tour the Hon. Sir Daniel Morris spent several 

 days as the guest of his Excellency Sir Bickhaiu 

 Sweet-Escott at Antigua and addressed a large 

 meeting of cotton growers there on April 24. He also 

 attended a meeting of cotton growers at Montserrat 

 on April 20, and took part in a conference with 

 members of the Agricultural Experiments Committee 

 at Dominica on April 27. 



Mr. W. K. Butteushaw, M.A., B.Sc, Scientific 

 Assistant on the staff of the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture, returned to Barbados on May 1 in 

 R.M.S. ' Orinoco' and resumed his duties after three 

 months' leave of absence. 



Mr. H. A. Ballou, B.Sc, Entomologist on the staff 

 of the Injperial Department of Agriculture, left 

 Barbados for New York in S.S. ' Soldier Prince ' on 

 May 9. Mr. Ballou has been granted three months' 

 leave of absence. 



Mr. F. A. Stockdale, B.A., Mycologist and Agri- 

 cultural Lecturer on the staff of the Imperial Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, returned to Barbados in S.S, 

 ' Parima ' on May 1 from an official visit of inspec- 

 tion of the Agricultural Schools at St. Lucia and 

 Dominica. 



