100 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



REPORT OF THE STATE VETERINARIAN 



Hon. N. B. Critchfield, Secretary of Agriculture. 



Dear Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith the report of the 

 State Veterinarian for the year 1914. 



With the exception of the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth dis- 

 ease there is nothing new or unusual to report. The ordinary dis- 

 eases that are present and rather common in Pennsylvania at all 

 times aire tuberculosis, glanders, hog cholera, rabies, contagious abor- 

 tion, calf scours and joint evil. The losses from these diseases each 

 year are far too great. Much better results may be expected when 

 there is a more united effort put forth to stamp them out. We have 

 made progress in recent years in handling glanders and hog cholera. 

 There has been no remedy discovered yet that will cure either disease. 

 In glanders our progress has been made in the improved method for 

 diagnosis, while in hog cholera it has been in the vaccination for 

 prevention. 



In former times glanders was recognized in horses only when the 

 disease was far advanced. Before this stage was reached the 

 glandered animal may have passed the infection on to man, horses 

 and mules, which may have died from it before the symptoms had 

 attracted attention in the horse that gave the infection. Later the 

 mallein test came into use. This test was somewhat similar to the 

 tuberculin test for tuberculosis, but much less reliable and mistakes 

 were often made. In some cases healthy horses were condemned and 

 destroyed by its use and in others the test failed to reveal the pre- 

 sence of the disease. For the past few years we have been using a 

 combination test for glanders that is reliable in practically every 

 case. These tests are made jointly in the stable and laboratory. A 

 special preparation of mallein is dropped in the snspected horse's 

 eye; at the <?ame time a sample of blood is taken from the jugular 

 vein for laboratory examination. If the animal has glanders the eye 

 becomes inflamed in about twelve hours and clears up fully during 

 the next twenty-four hours. If the horse is free from glanders the 

 eye remains clear. The blood examination serves as a check on the 

 eye test. Both of these tests are extremely delicate and often will 

 reveal the presence of glanders in a horse perhaps a year or more 

 before there is a discharge from the nose, an open sore on the body 

 or any other observable symptom. Such an animal is often a greater 

 source of danger than one in the last stages of the disease for the 

 reason that no precautions are taken in the first instance and reason- 

 ably safe measures are practiced with the horse with the open lesions. 



Where an open case of glanders is found in a stable, it is promptly 

 destroyed and all other susceptible animals are given the eye and 

 blood tests. In some cases from two to twenty per cent, of the non- 

 suspected horses fail to pass these tests. A careful physical examina- 

 tion may show no suspicious symptoms even to one thoroughly 

 trained in the diseases of animals, yet the State recommends that 

 they should be destroyed at once. They are appraised at a price not 

 to exceed $60 and destroyed. An autopsy is then made to see if the 



