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Division of Animal Industry, 



Honolulu, April 18, 1918. 



Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry, Honolulu. 



Gentlemen : — I beg to report upon the investigation of a sup- 

 posed outbreak of glanders in the Hamakua district of Hawaii, 

 as well as upon various conditions encountered on Hawaii and 

 pertaining to the work of this Division. 



During the month of January a letter was received from the 

 manager of the Hamakua plantation in question stating that two 

 mules had died from a disease believed to be glanders and that 

 one was then sick. Previous to this a few cases had occurred 

 from time to time, two of which had been diagnosed by the deputy 

 territorial veterinarian as glanders. However, as no cases of 

 this disease has been observed in that district since 1913, or any- 

 where else in the Territory, and as it was highly improbable that 

 it could have been brought in with imported stock, some doubt 

 was felt as to the correctness of the diagnosis. 



A disease called epizootic lymphangitis and which clinically 

 resembles glanders or farcy to a great degree, was described and 

 illustrated in the annual report of this Division for 1906. 



It was especially prevalent on Maui where two outbreaks 

 occurred each of which caused the death of 13 plantation and 

 road board mules. But also on Oahu and Hawaii has the disease 

 been met with though in only scattering cases. It is very preva- 

 lent in China, India and Japan, and is frequently referred to as 

 Japanese farcy. In these countries, however, it is far less viru- 

 lent than is the case here and many cases recover, while here it 

 invariably proves fatal. 



Epizootic lymphangitis is a virulent transmissible disease char- 

 acterized by the swelling and subsequent suppuration of the 

 superficial lymph vesels, or affecting the mucous membrane of 

 the nose in glanders-like fashion. It is caused by a specific 

 micro-organism, a fungus (saccharomyees farciminosum) and 

 not by a bacillus, as glanders is. That it is difficult to distin- 

 guish the two diseases from each other is best illustrated by 

 quoting a sentence from a monograph on epizootic lymphangitis 

 by Captain Pallin of the Army Veterinary Department of Eng- 

 land. Captain Pallin says : 



''The disease has from time immemorial been invariably con- 

 founded with glanders (farcy) and ulcerative lymphangitis, in 

 whatever part of the world it has appeared, and even with the 

 assistance of Mallein and modern science, veterinarians of near- 

 ly every nationality still continue to make the same mistakes." 



In certain of the West Indies the disease is said to decimate 

 the mule population. 



