REPORT OF STATE VETERINARIAN. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the State Board of Agriculture : 

 A statement of all the official visits made by the 

 State Veterinarian and deputy State Veterinarians has been tabu- 

 lated by the Secretary of the Board and will be printed in your 

 annual report. Reference to this statement will show that the 

 principal part of the control work during the past year has been 

 done by the deputies located in the different parts of the State. 

 The work at the office has increased to such an extent that, if prop- 

 erly attended to, it would require all of my time. In addition to 

 attending to office work during the past year, I have, however, 

 devoted a large share of my time to making tuberculin tests of 

 herds of cattle and studying the situation with regard to the 

 spread of tuberculosis among cattle and hogs. I furthermore, took 

 personal charge of the tick eradication work in South Missouri, 

 and, altogether, devoted about two months of my time to this line 

 of work. By way of educational work I put in three weeks at 

 farmers' institutes and prepared a bulletin on the subject of "Para- 

 sitic Diseases of Sheep." 



The continual traffic in live stock in this State tends to cause 

 repeated outbreaks of contagious diseases. In order to keep these 

 diseases under control, it is necessary to keep up a running fight 

 against them. The funds provided for the veterinary department 

 have heretofore been entirely inadequate. On account of the lack 

 of funds we have had to neglect many outbreaks of diseases during 

 the last year and have been compelled to make hasty and incom- 

 plete investigations in others. However, with the exception of the 

 rapid introduction and spread of tuberculosis in our herds, and 

 the extension of the losses from Texas fever, we have done fairly 

 well in our efforts to hold all contagious diseases in check. 



SCABIES. 



During the year 1908 there were 53 shipments of scabby 

 sheep from Missouri to the public markets. Other reports of out- 

 breaks of scabies were received from different sources. 



(56) 



