490 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Nothing further was heard from the disease in Michigan by the 

 Washington office until October 10, when a letter and three speci- 

 mens taken from lesions of recently affected animals were received 

 from the inspector in charge of the Detroit, Michigan, meat in- 

 spection station. The inspector stated in his letter that he had vis- 

 ited Niles in company with the state veterinarian, and found the 

 disease had spread from the original two herds to six others. The 

 history of the various affected herds and the lesions found in those 

 most recently infected were so completely described in the letter 

 that foot and mouth disease was suggested. On receipt of this in- 

 formation an expert was sent from Washington on the next train to 

 investigate the report. The three specimens which were received 

 with the inspector's letter were used immediately to inoculate three 

 calves at the Department Experiment Station located at Bethesda, 

 Md. On October 12, the expert wired from Niles, Michigan, that 

 the clinical appearance of the affected animals was positive of foot 

 and mouth disease and requested that Dr. J. R. Mohler be sent to 

 confirm the diagnosis. The chief of the bureau in return wired in- 

 structions to the expert at Niles to inoculate a calf and if there were 

 no developments within forty-eight hours in the three calves inocu- 

 lated at the experiment station. Dr. Mohler, the assistant chief of 

 the bureau, would be sent to Niles. No disease developed at the Ex- 

 periment station within forty-eight hours, and Dr. Mohler, accom- 

 panied by several veterinary inspectors, proceeded to Niles, arriving 

 there at 6 :30 o 'clock on the evening of October 15th. He proceeded 

 immediately to one of the infected herds, made his examination by 

 the aid of an electric flashlight, confirmed the diagnosis, and wired 

 a report to the chief of the bureau that night, in which additional 

 men were requested to assist in the work of eradication. 



The long time required for the inoculated animals at the experi- 

 ment station to show any evidence of disease — one requiring seven 

 days, one nine days, and the third remaining healthy — as well as the 

 slight extent to which the disease had spread on the farms in Michi- 

 gan before its nature became known, showed that at first the infec- 

 tion was of an exceedingly mild form, although it increased in viru- 

 lence as the outbreak progressed. In spite of the fact that no quar- 

 antine measures had been imposed, the disease remained confined 

 to a restricted area for more than six ^veeks, which is very unusual 

 with foot and mouth disease and very commonly observed in various 

 forms of stomatitis. 



