CONTAGIOUS DISEASES AMONG CATTLE. 287 



CATTLE COMMISSIONEES' EEPOET. 



To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth 



of Massachusetts. 



In compliance with legal requirements, the undersigned, 

 Commissioners on Contagious Diseases among Cattle, hereby 

 submit their Annual Report. The neat-stock interest of the 

 State, in all its departments, has been prosperous during the 

 current year. Owing to the transportation to our territory 

 of cattle from the Far West and South- West, there has been 

 for several years great danger to our native stock by the 

 dissemination of the cattle-plague, or Spanish fever. The 

 laws enacted to prevent this calamity have been effective 

 during the present year ; and no case of their infringement, 

 or of the disease, has come to the knowledge of the Com- 

 missioners. 



We have also been exempt from other contagious cattle- 

 diseases, which have caused immense losses and serious 

 derangement of trade in Europe, and, to a limited extent, in 

 some of our sister States. The only official duties we have 

 been called upon to discharge have been those imposed by 

 Act of 1878, chap. 24. By this act, all the laws of the 

 State relating to contagious diseases among cattle, and all the 

 duties and powers of the Commissioners, are made to apply 

 to horses, asses, and mules infected with the diseases known 

 as "glanders" and "farcy." Though many cases of the dis- 

 ease have come to the knowledge of the Board, in only five 

 have we found it necessary to act officially. Some cases 

 have fallen to the care of the officers of towns and cities ; 

 but in eight cases in Springfield the owners of the animals 

 willingly killed them by advice of Dr. Lyman, a veterinary 

 physician of the place, without the interference of the 

 authorities. 



A most flagrant case occurred last season in the town of 

 Chicopee, to which your attention is specially called, in the 

 hope, that, by some legal enactment, such occurrences may 

 be hereafter prevented. The owner of a sick horse in that 

 town was notified by a regular veterinary practitioner that 

 unmistakably the disease was glanders, and he was advised 

 to kill him ; instead of doing which, however, he repeatedly 

 tried to sell or trade him. Failing in this, he gave him to an 



