326 Seventeenth Annual Report of the 



must all be brought into evidence, and every clue followed to its 

 final end, and that of all its branches. This involves making- 

 similar inquiries at the destination of each shipment, as to unload- 

 ing banks, chutes, alleys, yards, buildings, highways, farms, and 

 other stock that have, since the arrival of the suspected animals, 

 come in contact with any of these. 



All stock cars arriving within the state with animals even for 

 immediate slaughter, must have been thoroughly disinfected for 

 the trip, and a similar disinfection is imperative before they can 

 be again used for stock. 



The difficulty in tracing suspected live stock is always greatest 

 with those driven by road, and at the beginning of an outbreak, 

 before quarantine has been imposed, there will always have been 

 cases of this kind, that have left no available record with com- 

 mission men, weighers or railroads, but which must be laboriously 

 traced by special inquiry along the routes which they have trav- 

 eled, and among the flocks and herds for a considerable distance 

 on each side of such routes. The authorities have, however, this 

 in their favor, that the stock does not travel such long distances 

 by road as by rail, and when the start and direction of a drove is 

 known, the prompt quarantine of a wide district of country in 

 that direction will hold such dangerous animals immovable 

 where they may happen to be caught, until they can be discovered 

 and taken care of by inspectors. As drove cattle or other stock 

 are usually sold singly, or a few only at a place, they tend to plant 

 many more centers of infection than those shipped by rail. An 

 outbreak developed in this way, therefore, demands a relatively 

 much larger staff of inspectors and a more lasting supervision and 

 outlay than when a larger number of animals are attacked at one 

 point by a single railroad shipment. 



