100 _ ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



of communications are received from vetei-iiiarians, licaltb officers 

 aud stock men to the effect that certain horses are or are sus- 

 pected of beini^ afflicted with glanders. Investigations made in 

 such cases usually show tliat the suspicion is not well founded. 

 In following up reports of this kind it is often sufficient to make 

 a physicial examination, and in this Wiiy ascertain that glanders 

 does or does not exist. In some instances it is necessary to resort 

 to a laboratory examination of the discharge from the nose or 

 from ulcers upon the skin, or to the malleiu test. Since the labora- 

 tor}' examination requires more time than the mallein test, the 

 latter method of diagnosis is more frequently employed. During 

 the vear. 183 horses and mules were tested with mallein. Nearly 

 all of the animals that were condemned as glaudered were thus 

 tested. The test has been found by experience covering more than 

 ten years, to be exceedingly reliable and, indeed, if made under 

 proper conditions, almost infallible. 



Vriiere glanders is found to exist and it is learned that horses 

 or mules have been in close contact with the infected animal, 

 through working in the same team or through association in the 

 stable, it is customary to apply the mallein test to the animals 

 so exposed. It happens frequently that animals so tested react to 

 mallein in a characteristic way, both in respect to rise of tempera- 

 ture and in respect to swelling at the point of injection. Such 

 reactions are taken to indicate that the animal is actually in- 

 fected with glanders. That this is the case is shown by the ex- 

 cessive rarity of similar reactions among horses not known to 

 have been exposed. When an animal exposed to glanders, but 

 showing no external evidence of this disease, is found to react in 

 this characteristic manner, it is placed in quarantine through serv- 

 ing upon the owner an order requiring him to keep and care for the 

 animal in a way that is specified. It is not always required that 

 the animal shall be closely quarantined and isolated. If it is be- 

 lieved that the owner can and will observe the precautions that 

 are necessary, he is permitted to use the horse under certain re- 

 btiictions. It is required, for example, that the horse shall be 

 stabled nowhere excepting in his own stable and stall, that he 

 shall not be tied or allowed to stand in a public place where horses 

 j.-'ather, that he shall not be permitted to drink from a public water- 

 ing trough, that he shall not be driven or worked with another 

 horse, etc. After a period of from four to six weeks, the horse 

 is again tested with mallein and retests are made at subsequent 

 intervals of from four to six weeks, until upon two successive tests 

 the horse has shown no response to the mallein test whereupon, 

 if he shows no external signs of glanders, it is considered that the 

 i'jfectiou has been overcome and the quarantine is raised. Uusally, 



