April, '17] BISHOPP: FLIES AND ABATTOIRS 269 



SOME PROBLEMS IN INSECT CONTROL ABOUT ABATTOIRS 

 AND PACKING HOUSES ^ 



By F. C. BiSHOPP, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology 



Introductory 



The attitude of the public in general toward the source and method 

 of production of its food supplies had been largely a passive one. An 

 increased interest along these lines is being exhibited and improved 

 methods of handling foodstuffs are in evidence. Nowhere have rules 

 of sanitation been more grossly abused than in the preparation and 

 handling of foods of animal origin which constitute so large a part of 

 the diet of the American people. The action of federal, state and mu- 

 nicipal authorities has brought about during the last decade marked 

 improvement of sanitary conditions under which meat food products 

 are produced. While these activities have not always involved cam- 

 paigns against flies they have always resulted in affecting fly control 

 in some degree. Possibly the greatest advance along the line of im- 

 proving the quality and cleanliness of this group of products has been 

 made by the operation of the federal meat inspection act as carried 

 out by the United States Bureau of Animal Industry. 



The question of producing animal products in a sanitary way has 

 many sides, and the meat inspection service has been ever awake to 

 the possibilities of improving in various and sundry ways the efficiency 

 of their service. The question of fly control has received no little at- 

 tention from them, but many problems of a special nature arose which 

 resulted in the request that the Bureau of Entomology cooperate with 

 them in the study of the relation of insects to the packing industry. 



Mr. George H. Shaw, Sanitary Engineer of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, working under the general direction of Dr. R. P. Steddom, 

 chief of the meat inspection division, had given the question of fly re- 

 pression some attention before the Bureau of Entomology took up the 

 work, and these gentlemen, as well as inspectors in charge of federal 

 meat inspection in different parts of the country, have shown hearty 

 cooperation in the conduct of the investigation which has been carried 

 on for the greater part of two seasons by Mr. E. W. Laake and the 

 writer. 



One of the encouraging features of the work is the general accept- 

 ance as an unquestioned fact that flies and other food-infesting in- 

 sects are a menace to public health and should be controlled. This 

 speaks highly of the educational propaganda along this line which Dr. 

 L. O. Howard has been foremost in promoting. Nearly all of the fed- 



' Published by permission of the chief of the Bureau of Entomology. 



