BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 365 



The infection of man is best guarded against by the pasteurization 

 of all goats' milk and the removal of the corrals and kidding pens 

 from proximity to dwellings. The sanitary conditions around goat 

 ranches should be improved. The goat pens, as a rule, are very close 

 to the houses, and the goat manure has been collecting in these pens 

 ever since goats have been kept therein. Frequently the goat bedding 

 ground is around the yard fence. The water supply is frequently 

 from wells and small streams, and in many instances these may 

 readily become contaminated from goat pens. In localities where the 

 disease is prevalent an educational campaign dealing with the neces- 

 sity of heating the milk, as is done for the prevention of typhoid from 

 milk, would greatly aid in the prevention of the infection in man. 

 Although the disease has no active effect on goats, which merely act 

 as the passive carriers of the infection, eradication must be considered 

 from the standpoint of public health, and in this respect it is of 

 the highest importance, since there is a tendency at the present time 

 among physicians to advise the drinking of goats' milk for children 

 and invalids. 



HEMORRHAGIC SEPTICEMIA AMONG BUFFALO IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL 



PARK. 



During the month of December, 1911, the Department of Agri- 

 culture received information from the Department of the Interior 

 of the existence of a fatal disease in the buffalo herd in the Yellow- 

 stone National Park, with the request that an expert be detailed to 

 •investigate the disease. Dr. E. J. Gary, a veterinary inspector of 

 the bureau, was accordingly detailed to carry out the investigation 

 at the park. In all, 22 buffaloes died between December 3 and De- 

 cember 15, young animals being especially victims of the disease. 

 The symptoms and especially the post-mortem findings were indica- 

 tive of hemorrhagic septicemia, but it was deemed advisable to for- 

 ward some of the tissues to the laboratory at Washington for 

 confirmation. The bacteriological examination as well as test inocu- 

 lations proved an infection with hemorrhagic septicemia, as the 

 specific microorganism. Bacillus bipolaris biibalisepticvs, was isolated 

 from all tissues, and test animals which were inoculated Avith material 

 from the specimens died of typical hemorrhagic septicemia, the spe- 

 cific organism being also recovered from the blood of these animals. 



The authorities of the j^ark were immediately notified of the find- 

 ings and preventive measures recommended for the checking of the 

 spread of the disease. In consideration of the possibility of the 

 recurrence of the infection in the spring it was deemed advisable to 

 undertake in the early spring the vaccination of the entire herd 

 with bacterial vaccines prepared from the recovered organism. For 

 this pur})ose two vaccines were prepared of different strengths. The 

 vaccine for the first inoculation was prepared by growing the organ- 

 ism five da3\s at 42.5° C., while the vaccine for the second injection 

 was cultivated in the same temperature for only two days. 



In order to determine the efficiency of the vaccine it Avas deemed 

 advisable to test its potency on experimental animals prior to the 

 vaccination of the buffalo herd. Rabbits and sheep were cmph)yed 

 for that purpose. Two subcutaneous injections of the vaccines were 

 given to these animals at 10-day intervals, for the first vaccination 



