28 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



DIVISION OF VETERINARY SCIENCE. 



The ofiice of the State Veterinarian has experienced a year of 

 unusual activity and progress. As heretofore, the greater part of the 

 State Veterinarian's work has consisted in aiding herd owners who 

 wish to eradicate tuberculosis from their herds and, with this object 

 in view, enter voluntarily into a contract with this Commonwealth 

 under which they receive important assistance, on condition that 

 they will do what they can to make the work permanent. Other 

 diseases of animals, have also required much attention during the 

 year. ^'Rinderseuche" have been the most important, because the 

 most prevalent. There has been less anthrax and black-quarter than 

 for several years, and due, it is believed, to the systematic vaccina- 

 tion against these diseases that has been practiced on rather a large 

 scale during the past few years. 



Ever since the organization of the work of the State Live Stock 

 Sanitary Board, a laboratory has been maintained for the produc- 

 tion of the tuberculin, mallein and anthrax vaccine used in the regu- 

 lar work of the Board. The cost of maintaining the laboratory, has 

 been more than made up, in the value of these products. But in ad- 

 dition to this work, the laboratory has served a most useful purpose 

 in affording facilities for the diagnosis of specimens from diseased 

 animals, and has by this service considerably increased the effi- 

 ciency of the veterinary profession of the State. Outside of all of 

 this routine work, the laboratory has furnished the opportunity for 

 conducting a rather remarkable volume of research. This division 

 of the work has been most fruitful, and has been the means of re- 

 vealing many new and serviceable facts in connection with the path- 

 ology, the diagnosis, and the prevention of some of our most preva- 

 lent and destructive animal diseases. The most notable achieve- 

 ments in this line during the past year have been, first, the establish- 

 ing of the essential identity of the animal and human tuberculosis; 

 second, the development of a method for immunizing cattle against 

 tuberculosis by vaccination, and, third, the indentification of the 

 ''Rinderseuche" as the disease that has heretofore been called the 

 "mountain disease of cattle'' and has caused considerable losses in 

 some of the rougher parts of the State. 



In regard to tuberculosis, the number of inspections is limited 

 pnl^ b;^ the funds' available for making thena. Thej'e s^-e several 



