134: ANNUAL rvEPOKTS OF DEP.VETMENT 01' AGKICULTUEE. 



adequate faculty, and the projspect of a small attendance of students, 

 one veterinary coUeo'e discontinued its sessions. One veterinary col- 

 lege in Canada was added to the accredited list. Xt the close of the 

 fiscal 3'ear there were 17 accredited veterinary colleges in the United 

 States and Canada and 8 in European countries. 



OFFICE OF VIRUS-SERUM CONTROL. 



The supervision of veterinary viru>es, serums, antitoxins, etc., 

 under tlie law of 1913, was continued by the Oflice of Virus-Scrum 

 Control, in charge of Dr. H. J. Shore until March 31, when he re- 

 signed, and since then the office has been in charge of Dr. D. I. Skid- 

 nu>re. 



During the year licenses were issued to 81 firms for the prepara- 

 tion of 179 products for sale in interstate commerce, and 1 licenses 

 were canceled. 



Virus and serum for the i)revention of hog cholera form a large 

 part of the volume of products supervised. To determine the purity 

 and potency of the serum and the freedom of the virus from con- 

 tamination 8,480 tests of the former and 1,616 of the latter weic 

 made. The production was as follows: Serum, 673,297,647 cubic 

 centuneters, of wliich 4,609,531 cubic centimeters was destroyed; 

 yirus for use simultaneously Avith serum. 19,963,053 cubic centimetcr.s, 

 of which 364,310 cubic centimeters was destroyed; yirus for hyper- 

 innuunization of hogs for the production of serums. 181.750.S62 cubic 

 centimeters, of which 10,052.745 cubic centimeters was destroyed. 

 The quantity of serum produced was very much larger than in any 

 previous year. The denumd for clear senmi has increased greatly. 



There were inspected and admitted to the premises of licensed 

 establishments for use in the producticm and testing of antihog- 

 cholei-a serum and hog-cholei-a virus 446,800 hogs and 3.400 calves, 

 of which 1,187 hogs and 1 calf were rejected. In subsequent oper- 

 ations 25,585 additional hogs were rejected. 



EXPERIMENT STATION. 



The work of the experiment station at Bethesda, ]Md.. in charge 

 of Dr. E. C. Schroeder, superintendent, consisting in general of ex- 

 periments relating to diseases of aninuils, during the past year has 

 dealt mainly with the two maladies of greatest importance in the 

 United States at this time, abortion di>oase and tuberculosis. 



ABORTION DISEASE. 



Particular attention was given to the subsequent abortion-disease 

 history of calves produced by infected cows. The studies are not 

 yet complete, but as far as they have gone they strongly indicate 

 that the calves born to abortion-infected cows arc no more likely to 

 abort at their first pregnancy or to show other signs of infectious 

 abortion disease than calves of abortion-free cows. This seems to 

 be in accord with various observations which point to the conclusion 

 that cattle nvAj acquire gradually a herd inmiunity against abor- 

 tion disease, so that the disease, though it may not die out entii-ely, 

 after a while ceases to cause serious trouble in herds into which no 



