108 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



states. In reference to this suggestion, it may be said, a great many 

 horses suffering with incipient glanders show no symptoms of dis- 

 ease. A large number of horses exposed to glanders and in con- 

 dition to develop it might readily be passed as sound if nothing 

 but a physical examination is relied upon; therefore, to render it 

 possible to exclude, with accuracy, horses afflicted with glanders h\ 

 the early stages, it would be necessary to submit all horses to the 

 mallein test or to make the agglutination test with a sample of 

 blood sent to the laboratory. This would occasion considerable 

 delay in the shipment of horses and would be an expensive pro- 

 cedure. The cost would amount to not less than |1 per horse. 

 The cost would, in any case, be very much greater than the 

 cost of dealing with the outbreaks of glanders as they arise. If 

 the disease can be controlled in Pennsylvania at a cost of |10,000 

 a year, and it is not likely to be more than this, it would seem to be 

 unjustifiable to incur an expenditure of .$50,000 to |100,000 a year to 

 keep glanders out of the State. Of course there is another side 

 to the question in addition to the economic side that is referred to, 

 and that is the public health relation of this disease; glanders is 

 transmissible to man and deaths from glanders occur occasionally 

 among persons infected from horses. Fortunately, this danger is 

 small and can be almost entirely avoided by promptly reporting 

 horses with glanders as is required by law, so that they may be 

 disposed of by the state veterinary service. 



The most important point in connection with the control of this 

 disease is prompt reporting, on the part of horse owners and 

 veterinarians. If all cases were reported just as soon as glanders 

 is known to exist, or is suspected, these losses, and the attendant 

 dangers, would be very much less than they are. 



ANTHRAX. Anthrax has occurred during the past year in the 

 following counties: Berks, Bradford, Chester, Erie, Lancaster, Mc- 

 Kean, Potter, Susquehanna, Tioga, Warren and York. 63 cows, 

 2 mules and 2 horses are knov»m to have died of anthrax (other 

 deaths from this cause are probable), and 661 animals v/ere vac- 

 cinated. The Pasteur system of vaccinating has been modified to 

 the extent of using two vaccines instead of three. In some cases, 

 however; that is, where the infection is particularly severe and the 

 danger is esteemed to be unusually great, a third vaccination is 

 made. The results from vaccination have been very satisfactory. 

 It has happened in two instances that animals have died after the 

 first vaccination. A laboratory study was made of one of these 

 cases and it was found that death resulted from anthrax. The 

 culture recovered revealed an organism of much higher virulence 

 than that of the vaccine, and so it v/as considered that the animal 

 must have become infected from an outside source, either before it 

 was vaccinated or shortly thereafter. In this case, there was no 

 swelling at the seat of inoculation, that is at the place where the 

 vaccine was injected; this was regarded as evidence in favor of 

 infection from some other source. The number of anthrax cases 

 appears to be diminishing as the centers of the disease have been 

 located and are kept under surveillance. 



BLACKLEG. Blackleg has occurred during the past year in the 

 following named counties: Bradford, Butler, Cambria, Clarion, Clear- 



