BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 209 



NEED FOR ANOTHER ANIMAL QUARANTINE STATION ON THE 



ATLANTIC SEABOARD. 



In recent years there has been a great increase in the number of 

 imported animals subject to quarantine, and the capacity of the 

 quarantine stations near the ports of New York and Boston has 

 been overtaxed. This has caused considerable inconvenience to im- 

 porters, some of Avhom have been compelled to defer shipments await- 

 ing the release from quarantine of other importations before space 

 could be found for their importations, A number of them have 

 diverted their animals to the Canadian quarantine station at Quebec. 



There is great need for an additional quarantine station on the 

 Atlantic seaboard, and this station should be located directly on the 

 water front so as to be specially adapted to the reception of animals 

 in cases where there seems to be more than ordinary danger of carry- 

 ing infection. At the present time the Bureau has no quarantine 

 station on the water front. At New York transportation by barge 

 from the steamer to the railroad on the New Jersey side is necessary, 

 in addition to which 16 miles must be covered by rail before reaching 

 the Athenia station. The quarantine of animals entering at Boston 

 requires a railroad shipment of about 30 miles to reach the Littleton 

 station. 



As many importers have expressed their preference for the port of 

 Baltimore as a quarantine station, on account of its being farther 

 south than Boston or New York, thus having a milder climate, it is 

 evident that if a quarantine station could be located on the water 

 front near Baltimore, so that animals could be delivered by barge 

 directly at the station from the steamer, such a station would not 

 only receive its full share of patronage but would increase the num- 

 ber of fine breeding animals imported into the United States, and 

 would diminish the danger of the introduction and spread of con- 

 tagious diseases. 



NEEDED LEGISLATION. 

 SUPERVISION OF VACCINES, SERUMS, ETC. 



In my report for the preceding year attention was called to the 

 importance of investing the Secretary of Agriculture with legal 

 power to control the importation of vaccines, serums, antitoxins, 

 tuberculins, and other preparations sold for the detection, prevention, 

 or treatment of diseases of animals, and to supervise the preparation 

 of such products manufactured in this country for interstate com- 

 merce, such authority to be similar to that already vested in the 

 United States Public Health and Marine-Hospital Ser^Hce with 

 regard to such products used in human medicine. A bill for this 

 purpose was introduced in Congress but was not acted upon at the 

 last session. AVith the growing use of these remedies in veterinary 

 medicine there is constant and increasing danger that contagious 

 diseases may be introduced from abroad and spread in this country 

 through such preparations unless their importation is properly super- 

 vised, and the facts reported last year show the necessity for the 

 supervision of domestic preparations of this kind in order to protect 

 our farmers, stock raisers, and veterinarians against fraudulent and 

 unreliable preparations. 



73477°— AGB 1910 14 



