Commissioner of Agriculture 327 



REPORT ON THE INVASION OF NEW YORK BY FOOT AND 



MOUTH DISEASE IN 1908 



James Law, F. B. C. V. S. 



Mid an over-confident sense of security, based on a continuous 

 immunity of over five years from the last limited invasion of New 

 England by foot and mouth disease, and as well on a still longer 

 period of freedom from infection since the great invasion of 

 Canada, New York, New England and New Jersey in 1870, and 

 no less on our 90 days quarantine of imported European cattle, 

 our live stock men, veterinarians and the general public were 

 startled by the announcement, early in November, 1908, of the 

 appearance of this affection in Pennsylvania. The first informa- 

 tion of the danger received in this state was in the form of a con- 

 fidential telegram from Dr. Leonard Pearson, State Veterinarian 

 of Pennsylvania, to Hon. Raymond A. Pearson, Commissioner of 

 Agriculture, that a disease resembling foot and month disease had 

 appeared in Pennsylvania in animals lately arrived from East 

 Buffalo. Within a few hours another message came from Dr. 

 Pearson to the effect that he had clearly diagnosed the disease. 

 Cattle shipped from the stock yards at East Buffalo had planted 

 the infection at Danville, Watertown and Milton, Penn. 



Summoned hurriedly by the Commissioner of Agriculture of 

 the State of New York, I reached Buffalo, November 10 and 

 found Dr. J. T. Claris ready to move on the part of this state. 

 But definite and unquestionable evidence of any actual center 

 of infection in this state was for some time unobtainable. We 

 soon learned the numbers of the cars which had delivered the 

 infected cattle in Pennsylvania and the railroads to which they 

 belonged; also the numbers of the enclosures in East Buffalo 

 yards in which said cattle had been kept from October 23 to 

 October 26; the railroads and numbers of the cars which had 

 brought these cattle to Buffalo; the points from which the 

 cattle were shipped to Buffalo; the shippers, the consignees, 

 commission men, and purchasers through whose hands these cattle 

 had passed. Inspectors were sent out along each of the lines indi- 

 cated as possible sources of infection, into different parts of 

 Canada, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, but for a length 



