No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 345 



o*f serious concern to many of you, so perhaps it would be well to 

 devote to this subject the small amount of time that is available. 



Foot and Mouth Disease is an exotic; it does not belong here and 

 it does not come very often. The last previous outbreak was in 

 1902, in New England. The disease was exterminated there after 

 prevailing for a number of mouths, and the country has been clear 

 of it until last October, when it occurred in Michigan. It was not 

 known to have occurred there, however, until after the shipments of 

 infected cattle had been made to Detroit and from there to Buffalo. 

 The first appearance of it in Pennsylvania was in the first week of 

 November, when it appeared in Montour county, in the neighbor- 

 hood of Danville, and about the same time in Northumberland coun- 

 ty, at Watsontown. These outbreaks are known to have been due 

 to several shipments from Buffalo, which carried infection into sev- 

 eral herds. In a short time, two outbreaks were found in Lehigh 

 county, one near Lock Haven, one in Snyder county, in Juniata 

 county, in Lycoming county, in York county, at Norristown, in Mont- 

 gomery county, in rhiladelphia, in Chester county, and in Delaware 

 county. Altogether there were fourteen counties affected, and all 

 the outbreaks in this State were traced to shipments of cattle that 

 left Buffalo the last week of October or the first week of November. 

 After the disease was found here, it was reported to the officials of 

 New^ York State and of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and the outbreak was traced back to Buffalo, and from there 

 back to Detroit. 



Now, it happens that Pennsylvania is the principal market for 

 breeding cattle and for stockers sold at Buffalo, and more of these 

 cattle came into Pennsylvania than go into the State of New York. 

 Since Pennsylvania is the largest market for cattle sold in Buffalo, 

 more diseased cattle have been sold into Pennsylvania than into 

 any other state, although it appeared in Michigan, New York and 

 Maryland at about the same time. The amount of infection dumped 

 into Pennsylvania has been greater than that which entered all 

 the other states combined. It was scattered over such a large dis- 

 trict; it is over two hundred miles from the most eastern outbreak in 

 Philadelphia to the most western and northern one at Lock Haven. 



This disease is much dreaded by Veterinarians, because it is so 

 hard to control, and also because there is no disease known of man 

 or animals that spreads so lightly, so easily, as this disease. 



During the outbreak in this State, there have been instances where 

 the disease was carried several miles on the clothing of people. There 

 appears to be little doubt about its having been carried by pigeons 

 in Lancaster county, a mile across country to another farm. It is 

 well known that whenever there is an outbreak of this disease in 

 Holland, England receives some scattering infection, and it is 

 thought that it is carried there by the sea gulls or by other birds. 

 Foot and Mouth Disease is not a highly fatal disease; in that it can 

 be compared to smallpox. In the last outbreak of smallpox in 

 Pittsburg, there were 145 cases before there was one fatality. The 

 percentage of mortality in Foot and Mouth Disease is low, but it 

 destroys value very rapidly in every herd it enters. It often causes 

 garget in milch cows and ruins them for dairy purposes. 



Every herd that is attacked is injured to the extent of from one- 

 fourth to one-third or one-lialf of it» value, 

 231 



