158 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



DIVISION OF VIRUS-SERUM CONTROL. 



The supervision of veterinary viruses, serums, toxins, etc., under 

 the law of 1913 has been continued by the Division of Virus-Serum 

 Control under Dr. D. I. Skidmore, chief. This work consists of the 

 issuance of licenses to establishments manufacturing veterinary bio- 

 logical products for sale in interstate commerce, the inspection of 

 these establishments as to sanitary conditions and methods of pro- 

 duction, the supervision of production, the testing of products, and 

 the issuance of permits for the importation of such products from 

 abroad. The object of this supervision is to assure the potency and 

 harmlessness of this class of remedies. 



At the beginning of the year there were 90 licensed establish- 

 ments. Operations were discontinued in 4 of these, and 5 new estab- 

 lishments were licensed, so that at the end of the year there were 

 91 establishments operating under bureau licenses. During the year 

 19 licenses were terminated without prejudice to the establishments 

 involved. In most instances licenses were reissued in the place 

 of those terminated. On June 30, 1922, there were 59 licensed estab- 

 lishments producing only anti-hog-cholera serum and hog-cholera 

 virus, 25 producing other biologies only, and 7 producing both 

 classes of products. Seventy-five distinct classes of products were 

 prepared. To supervise these establishments and products the 

 bureau maintained 18 field stations with 39 substations in 22 States. 

 Two permits were issued to as many firms importing veterinary 

 biological products. 



The production of anti-hog-cholera serum amounted to 665,790,925 

 cubic centimeters, of which 66,089,704 cubic centimeters consisted of 

 clarified serum. There was destroyed as unfit for use 3,975,281 cubic 

 centimeters of hyperimmune blood or serum in uncompleted form 

 and 10,162,991 cubic centimeters of serum in completed form. The 

 quantity of simultaneous virus produced was 33,317,533 cubic centi- 

 meters. The quantity of simultaneous virus destroyed before com- 

 pletion or at the time. of collection was 340,815 cubic centimeters, 

 while 976,125 cubic centimeters were destroyed after being completed 

 for marketing. The production of hyperimmunizing virus was 159,- 

 875,507 cubic centimeters, of which "^there were destroyed 7,967,690 

 cubic centimeters at the time of collection and 472,258 cubic centi- 

 meters after preparation. To determine the potency and purity of 

 the serum and the purity of the virus 9,528 tests of the former and 

 1,905 of the latter were made. 



There were inspected and admitted to the premises of licensed 

 establishments for use in the production and testing of serum and 

 virus 405,770 hogs and 3,654 calves, while 518 hogs and 2 calves were 

 rejected. In subsequent operations 26,212 additional hogs were re- 

 jected. 



During the year 356 subcultures including 926 strains of organ- 

 isms used in the production of licensed products were collected and 

 subjected to laboratory examination, and 630 strains were found 

 satisfactory and 296 unsatisfactory. Two hundred and sixty-five 

 samples of products were also collected and examined, of which 218 

 were found to be satisfactory and 41 unsatisfactory. 



The division has cooperated with the Bureau of Chemistry in an 

 effort to prevent the sale of worthless remedies for hog cholera and 



