THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 303 



It is said that my suggestion to exclude live stock includes all kinds 

 of animals — cattle, sheep, hogs and horses. Very well, if all kinds of 

 animals are liable to bring destructive and disastrous plagues to our 

 shores, why not exclude one kind as well as another? It is absurd to 

 lock one door to a stable and leave another and equally convenient door 

 open for thieves to enter. 



If we follow the example of Great Britian, as suggested, we would 

 not exclude horses; and yet there are many dangers connected with the 

 horse trade. Glanders has been an ever present menace and source of 

 loss for many years. Horses may also, it is believed, carry the contagion 

 of foot-and-mouth disease. It may not be known to you, and yet it is a 

 fact, that the Bureau of Animal Industry has been struggling for several 

 years with an imported venereal disease of horses which has got upon 

 the ranges of the Northwest, and which has so far defied all efforts for its 

 complete eradication. As a climax comes the news of surra among the 

 horses in the Philippines. Surra is a disease long known in India, of 

 which we have heard little in the past, but with which we may become 

 only too well acquainted in the future. Surra is caused by a small animal 

 parasite which lives in the blood, and when once it gets into the blood of 

 a horse it stays there for months and perhaps for years. It would, there- 

 fore, be not at all impossible for a horse harboring this parasite to be 

 brought from the Philippines, or from India, or from any of the other 

 Oriental countries where the disease exists, either directly to the United 

 States, or indirectly by way of any of the European contries. Possibly the 

 disease was carried to China with the horses of the troops from India; 

 there it may have been communicated to the horses of the American 

 army, and by these transported to the Philippines. What we know is that 

 most of the horses in certain parts of the Philippines are affected this 

 year and the disease is exceedingly fatal. 



The parasite of surra is supposed to be carried from horse to horse 

 by certain species of flies. Just what kind of flies these are or whether 

 they exist in the United States is not definitely known. They certainly 

 exist in the Philippines, and if they are not already here they may be in- 

 troduced at any time. Surra is to horses what rinderpest is to cattle— 

 a disease that spreads rapidly and is fatal in nearly every case. 



Then why should we not adopt measures to protect our horses as 

 well as cattle? Why should we continue to live in a fool's paradise, im- 

 agining ourselves safe, when we see these diseases existing in other coun- 

 tries, jumping from one country to another, and, with faster and more 

 frequent communication between all parts of the world, ever getting 

 nearer to us in point of time, and on that account more dangerous? We 

 have seen foot-and-mouth disease jump from the continent of Europe again 

 and again within the past two years, notwithstanding the prohibition of 

 cattle, sheep and hogs; we have seen rinderpest jump to the African con- 

 tinent and spread over it like a sheet of flames, devouring the cattle and 

 damaging the sheep; we have seen surra jump to the Philippines. Shall 

 these diseases of other countries be no lesson to us? 



