BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 73 



COMBATING ANIMAL DISEASES. 



The efforts to induce increased production of live stock are closely 

 related to the control and suppression of animal diseases. In the 

 past our farmers have suffered with equanimity losses that from a 

 national point of view are now more serious than ever before, and 

 the bureau has taken more energetic efforts than ever to reduce these 

 losses. The normal work in that direction has been greatly enlarged 

 and quickened. 



The eradication of southern cattle ticks has been pressed vigor- 

 ously, with the result that the area released from quarantine in the 

 last fiscal year is the largest released in any one year since the work 

 was begun, in 1906. Territory amounting to 67,308 square miles 

 in 10 Southern States was released during the year because of having 

 been freed of ticks, making a total of 379,312 square miles since 

 the beginning, or 52 per cent of the original c(uarantined area. With 

 the release of the entire State of Mississippi from quarantine in De- 

 cember, 1917, a wedge of free territory has been forced through to the 

 Gulf of Mexico. The method of eradication consists in the systematic 

 and regular dipping, in a standard arsenical solution, of all cattle in a 

 community, tliroughout the season. The cost of tick eradication 

 has been found to be from 18 to 50 cents a head of cattle, while the 

 enhanced value of each animal is greatly in excess of this, one can- 

 vass having shown an estimated average increase of $9.76. The 

 eradication of the ticks is not only overcoming heavy losses but 

 permits the raising of high-class beef cattle and the development 

 of dairying in sections where neither of these industries could be 

 successful while the ticks remained. 



In all the tick-infested States the work of tick eradication has 

 reached a point where local option in the matter has ceased to be 

 effectual. Unfortunately in certain counties the voters and county 

 officials remain inflexible in their refusal to accept Federal or State 

 cooperation. This condition can be overcome only by specific State 

 legislation requiring county authorities to provide by a certain date 

 sufficient dipping vats and dipping materials and requiring that aU 

 cattle in the county shall be dipped under Federal or State supervi- 

 sion every 14 days for 8 months, beginning in April, and that State 

 quarantine regulations be strictly enforced. Such legislation has 

 resulted in the freeing of 31 counties in Mississippi and the release 

 of the entire State from quarantine. A similar State law is being 

 enforced in 42 parishes in Louisiana this year, and in 1919 a law of 

 the same character wiU become effective in 65 counties in Texas. 

 The enactment of similar laws is under consideration in other States. 

 Such measures promise to hasten greatly the completion of the 

 work. 



Hog cholera is undoubtedly the greatest impediment to increasing 

 our hog production. The present methods of control by farm sani- 

 tation, quarantine, and the application of antihog-cholera serum 

 have met with marked success m reducing and preventing the dis- 

 ease. The emergency appropriation enabled the bureau to extend 

 its cooperation to 33 States. Data compiled by the department 

 show that the losses from hog cholera in 1914 amounted to $75,000,- 

 000, while for the year ended March 31, 1918, they were but $32,000,- 

 000, a reduction of more than 50 per cent in less than five years. 



97335°— AGE 1918 6 



