No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 419 



could be expected to remunerate the owners for losses sustained dur- 

 ing the course of the disease. It has been demonstrated in all foreign 

 countries that this method will not exterminate the disease. We 

 cannot do something that they have failed to accomplish. It will 

 take us years to develop Veterinary Sanitary Police Regulations for 

 handling Apthous Fever by the quarantine method that is as good as 

 theirs. We cannot afford to even experiment with it. It would be a 

 calamity to the cattle, swine and sheep industry of this country to 

 have this disease get beyond our control. 



Careful records were kept by Dr. Rudovsky of the average losses 

 by this disease in Austria. In 13,858 head of cattle on 91 farms be- 

 longing to sugar factories, and 2,054 head on 802 small farms, the 

 loses from milk decrease, oxen incapacitated for work, loss of condi- 

 tion in all animals, natural death and compulsory slaughter, 

 amounted to about |20 per head. He estimates an annual loss of 

 over a million dollars in Austria. This is a safe estimate for the 

 losses each year in the countries of Continental Europe. Infection 

 comes from Russia and other Eastern countries where animal hy- 

 giene measures are practically nothing and it passes rapidly west- 

 ward to sections of Europe where veterinary police regulation are 

 most perfect. It has been practically impossible to exterminate 

 Aphthous Fever from the herds in France, Belgium, Switzerland, 

 Italy, Germany, Austria and Holland for the reason that fresh infec- 

 tions are constantly being brought in from Russia, Roumania, Tur- 

 key, Siberia, etc. 



The policy followed by many foreign countries is to adopt rigid 

 quarantine measures. No animals are killed on account of this dis- 

 ease unless they become worthless. For them perhaps this is the 

 cheapest and best policy but for the people in North America, where 

 we are surrounded by water and ice, and the infection is brought in 

 only occasionally, it seems best to continue the plan so successfully 

 used in all past outbreaks. The disease cannot be considered as a 

 source of danger to man. Its principal importance is an economic 

 question. If property must be destroyed and animals slaughtered 

 for the public good the owners should be compensated for their en- 

 tire loss, provided it can be shown that the disease was brought 

 about by no fault of the owner. 



Under the present law, our Board is limited in amount of in- 

 demnity that can be paid for animals that it is deemed necessary to 

 destroy, to |70 for a registered bovine, |40 for non-registered bovine 

 and |10 for a sheep or hog. The United States Government will 

 duplicate these amounts in the present outbreak, but some animals 

 have been destroyed that are worth from twenty to forty times the 

 amount allowed by law. Should not the law be fixed so that it would 

 be possible to pay full value for such animals when it becomes neces- 

 sary to destroy them for the benefit of the State or country? The 

 diseases from which such extreme measures are necessary are but 

 few. Aphthous Fever is the only one with which we have had to deal 

 so far. Rinderpest is equally as important and there is no positive 

 assurance that our herds may not become infected with it. The 

 dangers from these diseases have increased wonderfully in the past 

 few years by the progress made in the transportation. 



Rapid progress has been made in destroying the infection from the 

 present outbreak of Aphthous Fever. The payment for property and 



