72 ANNUAL BEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of cattle, but did not involve the hogs which were running in the 

 same pastures. 



The spread of the disease to the Chase County district was indi- 

 rectly brought to the attention of the bureau late in November, when 

 a shipment of cattle from that locality to the Kansas City stockyards 

 was found by the bureau inspectors to be affected wdth lesions in the 

 mouth strikingly similar to those of foot-and-mouth disease. All 

 precautionary measures were immediately taken, outgoing shipments 

 from the yards were stopped, the cars carrying cattle were located 

 and disinfected, and the cattle were traced to their point of origin in 

 western Nebraska. In the meantime experts were sent to the latter 

 point as well as to Kansas City, and a series of careful and compre- 

 hensive experiments was immediately begun at those points and also 

 at Washington. As a result of these tests and the reports from the 

 field inspectors, the opinion \#s reached that the disease in question 

 was not foot-and-mouth disease, but vesicular stomatitis, a con- 

 tagious disease affecting the mouths of horses, but at times spreading 

 to cattle also. 



This affection is known in Europe and South Africa and has been 

 observed occasionally in the United States, but without attracting 

 any particular attention. The recent outbreak is the most extensive 

 yet noted in this country, the disease having been especially prevalent 

 in Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming. From the 

 remount stations in the Central West it laecame distributed by follow- 

 ing the channels of trade from the western markets eastward as far 

 as the Atlantic coast. Several shipments of infected horses were 

 made to France, where the disease was promptly detected and investi- 

 gated by the French veterinarians. 



The measures taken to combat the outbreak were soon effective, and 

 the disease has now disappeared from the United States. 



The most striking lesion of vesicular stomatitis is the occurrence 

 of vesicles or blisters followed by erosions, chiefly on the tongue, but 

 also involving other portions of the mouth and occasionally the 

 muzzle. 



No losses have been reported from uncomplicated cases of this 

 disease -in either horses, mules, or cattle. A certain proportion of 

 horses and mules having vesicular stomatitis also became infected 

 with either influenza or contagious pneumonia, or perhaps both, and 

 a number of deaths occurred among such animals. 



That the malady is contagious has been definitely shown by the 

 transmission of the disease from sick to healthy animals by inocula- 

 tion. The degree of contagiousness, however, varies between wide 

 limits. As a rule the disease appears to be spread by direct contact 

 with recently affected animals or with recently infected feed troughs, 

 water troughs, bridles, or pails. Investigations indicate that the 

 disease is very seldom communicated by owners or caretakers of 

 affected animals visiting other farms. 



Investigations so far have not resulted in identifying any particu- 

 lar organism as the cause of the disease. The contagion is evidently 

 contained in the fluid of the blisters and is most virulent at the time 

 the blisters rupture or shortly thereafter, disappearing usually after 

 five or six days. 



While vesicular stomatitis has not the great economic importance 

 of foot-and-mouth disease, it nevertheless is contagious and causes 



