No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. :C3 



REPORT OF THE STATE VETERINARIAN. 



Harrisburg, Pa., January i, 1906. 

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



Sir: I have the honor to present the following report upon the 

 work of the State Livestock Sanitary Board and of the State 

 Veterinarian for the year 1905. 



The work of the year has been unusually exacting on account of the 

 exceptional prevalence of two diseases, rabies and glanders. With 

 respect to other diseases, diminished prevalence can be reported. 

 Particular progress has been made in the repression of anthrax and 

 of tuberculosis. The good results of the work that has been con- 

 ducted against anthrax is especially gratifying because this disease 

 has been introduced in a large number of localities in this State, 

 chiefly through foreign hides treated in Pennsylvania tanneries. 



Anthrax is such a virulent disease and it is so difficult to eradi- 

 cate it after it is once established in a locality, and it is spread with 

 such facilit}', that it is a matter for congratulation that the disease 

 is not only being held in check but is being steadily repressed. The 

 unusual prevalence of glanders appears to be due to a great increase 

 in the occurrence of this disease in the horse breeding states of the 

 West. Nearly all of the western states from which horses are 

 brought to Pennsylvania have experienced a considerable increase 

 in the prevalence of glanders during the past few years. On account 

 of the great activity of the industries of Pennsylvania there has 

 been a strong and increasing demand for western horses to use in 

 this State. Therefore, it has practically been inevitable that horses 

 and mules with glanders should have been brought into Pennsyl- 

 vania. In fact, most of the outbreaks of glanders that have occurred 

 in the State have been traced very directly to infected horses from 

 the West. But it is not only the West that threatens us with glan- 

 ders; in New York city this disease prevails more extensively than 

 in any other part of the United States, so that city-weary horses 

 from New York, which are constantly being taken into country dis- 

 tricts of neighboring states, have to be watched with great" care 

 lest glanders be introduced by them. 



While rabies has prevailed rather widely during the year and has 

 caused a large amount of damage, it is believed that the method 

 that has gradually been developed for controlling it is becoming- 

 more effective and that outbreaks are now dealt with with greater 

 certainty and that the disease will be controlled more quickly than 

 has been the case heretofore. 



A great advance in the work of the State Livestock Sanitary 

 Board has been made possible through the enactment of an act of 

 Assembly approved March 30, 1905 (P. L. No. 56), by which it is 

 required that all practitioners of veterinary medicine in Pennsyl- 

 vania shall, immediately upon gaining information thereof, report to 

 the secretary of the State Livestock Sanitary Board the occurrence 

 among animals of certain infectious diseases, specified in the act. 



