no ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



TEXAS FEVER. During the past year a number of cases of 

 Texas fever occurred. 30 cows died; 19 atfected recovered. These 

 49 cases were among 225 cattle, chiefly cows, and nearly all were 

 shipped from Ohio and Chicago to points in eastern Pennsylvania, 

 Examination showed a few ticks on the atfected animals. It was 

 thought, at first, that infection had occurred in the west or, possibly, 

 at the Pittsburg stockyards. Both of these possibilities were 

 looked into with the result that no evidence could be found which 

 tended to connect either the point or origin or the Pittsburg stock- 

 yards with the occurrence of the disease. It was not until Texas 

 fever occurred among some cattle shipped from Bradford County, 

 Pa., to Chester County that the source of infection was traced with 

 any degree of probability. It was found that these cattle had been 

 unloaded in transit at Harrisburg and subsequent investigation 

 showed that on the 20th of July a carload of southern cattle was un- 

 loaded at the Harrisburg yards and were kept there about four 

 hours. These cattle w^ere unloaded on account of an injury to the 

 car that they were in. They occupied a pen used in the usual course 

 of the business of the yards. There is no pen at Harrisburg that 

 is reserved for southern cattle. The cattle from Troy, Bradford 

 County, occupied the yar<l at Harrisburg September 22; the first case 

 occurred among the cows of this shipment October Ttli and during 

 the next few days 9 additional cases occurred. Steps were im- 

 mediately taken to clean up and disinfect the Harrisburg stockyards. 

 No further trouble occurred after this was done. 



RABIES. Rabies among dogs has occurred during the past year 

 in the following named counties: Allegheny, Berks, Bucks, Butler, 

 Cambria, Carbon, Centre, Chester, Clearfield, Columbia, Crawford, 

 Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Indiana, Jefferson, Lancaster, Leb- 

 anon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Mercer, Montgomery, Montour, Philadelphia, 

 Schuylkill, Somerset, Susquehanna, Venango, V\"arren, Washington, 

 Waj^ne, Westmoreland and York. 517 dogs died of rabies or were 

 destroyed on account of exposure. 20 cattle and 5 horses died of ra- 

 bies. 58 people were bitten by dogs that were known to have been 

 rabid, of whom several died, presumably of rabies. General quar- 

 antines were established covering all of the dogs of districts in the 

 counties of Delaware, Fayette, Jefferson, Schuylkill, Somerset, Ve- 

 nango and Westmoreland. Where it is possible to control an out- 

 break of rabies by the quarantine of individual animals, known to 

 have been exposed, this method is adopted. In some outbreaks, 

 however, it is not possible to determine just what animals have been 

 exposed and so, in order to include all of them, a general quarantine 

 becomes necessary. The period of quarantine is usually 100 days. 

 This period is selected because it covers the period of incubation in 

 practically all cases. It may be that the period of incubation for 

 rabies exceeds 100 days in from one to two per cent, in all cases. 

 Statistics on this point vary somewhat, but this appears to be a fair 

 statement. When the period of incubation exceeds 100 days it may 

 run to several months, possibly for six or eight months. It would 

 not be possible or xjroper to keep all dogs in quarantine for the max- 

 imum period of incubation of eight months unless it were planned 

 to entirely exterminate rabies in some large districts in accordance 

 with the method developed and followed successfully in several Eu- 



