BUREAU OF ANIMAL. INDUSTRY. 133 



All ruminants and swine received at public stockyards were care- 

 fully inspected for foot-and-mouth disease by experienced veteri- 

 nary inspectors specially assi<2^ed to that work, as has been the prac- 

 tice for a number of years, in order that there might be no delay 

 in the control and eradication of the disease should an outbreak 

 occur. No cases were detected. 



ENFORCEMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND QUARANTINE LAWS. 



The bureau has continued to report to the Solicitor of the depart- 

 ment, for presentation to the proper officials of other departments^ 

 cases of apparent violations of livestock transportation and quar- 

 antine laws. Many of these cases have required special investiga- 

 tions on the part of bureau employees, such as interviewing wit- 

 nesses and examining railroad and other records. Four bureau em- 

 ployees were regularly assigned to this service, although the greater 

 part of the work of collecting evidence and preparing and submit- 

 ting reports is done by bureau employees at stockyard centers in 

 connection with their other duties. 



The enforcement of the so-called 28-hour law has resulted in bet- 

 ter facilities being provided for the feeding, watering, and handling 

 of livestock in transit. 



INSPECTION AND QUARANTINE OF IMPORTED ANIMALS. 



The alarming prevalence of serious livestock diseases in various 

 countries of the world has made necessary continued exercise of 

 every possible precaution to prevent their introduction into the 

 United States. One or more diseases such as rinderpest, contagious 

 pleuropneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, and surra exist in most 

 countries of South America and the Eastern Hemisphere, rendering 

 cattle, sheep, goats, and swine from continental Europe, Asia, Africa, 

 and South America ineligible for importation. Cattle from the 

 Channel Islands and from Scotland were permitted importation dur- 

 ing the late summer and autumn of 1921, and in the early winter a 

 small number of cattle and sheep from England were imported, 

 Great Britain having been at that time free from foot-and-mouth 

 disease for a period of about three months. The disease having re- 

 appeared in England and extended to Scotland in January, 1922, 

 no cattle, sheep, other ruminants, or swine were permitted importa- 

 tion during the last six months of the year from any of the British 

 Isles. 



Forty-six purebred milk goats originating in Switzerland were 

 imported from Cuba subject to inspection and the customary quar- 

 antine at the port of entr3^ Twenty breeding sheep from New Zea- 

 land were imported at San Francisco. Bureau employees at border 

 ports of entry inspected and supervised the quarantine of 37,953 

 quail from Mexico under requirements of the Bureau of Biological 

 Survey. 



Foxes imported for breeding purposes have been permitted impor- 

 tation only when found on inspection to be free from various inter- 

 nal parasites, mange, distemper, or other diseases contagious to foxes. 

 During the year 1,177 foxes were inspected at various ports of entry. 



