110 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



force to locate new centres of infection and prevent the disease from 

 spreading. The quarantined herds should be under constant Federal 

 or State supervision. Neither the State nor Federal government 

 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 hope to do something that they have failed to accomplish. It 

 will take us years to develop Veterinary Sanitary Police Eegulations 

 for handling Aphthous 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 

 from this disease in Austria. In 13,858 head of cattle on 91 farms 

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

 losses 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 hvgiene measures are 

 practically nothing and it passes rapidly westward to section of 

 Europe where veterinary police regulations 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 infections are constantly being 

 brouglit in from Russia, Romania, Turkey, 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 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 

 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 pub- 

 lic good the owners should be compensated for their entire loss pro- 

 vided 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 indemnity 

 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 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 

 net the law be fixed so it would be possible to pay full value for such 

 animals when it becomes necessary to destroy them for the benefit 

 of the State or country? The diseases for which such extreme meas- 

 ures ara necessary are but few. Aphthous Fever is the only one with 

 which we have had to deal so far. Rinderpest is equally as import- 

 ant 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 trans- 

 portation. 



