FOURTH AND FIFTH ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE BUREAU OF 

 ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU. 



The work for extirpating contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and for 

 preventing its spread into uninf ected States and Territories, lias been 

 the most important business of the Bureau during the years 1887 

 and 1888. While the work of scientific investigation and the collec- 

 tion of information of value to the agricultural and commercial 

 interests of the country have not been neglected, the urgent neces- 

 sity for the immediate control of the exotic cattle disease just men- 

 tioned has caused by far the greater part of the appropriation to be 

 used for that purpose. This also was in accordance with the evident 

 intention of Congress in increasing the appropriation and in con- 

 ferring special authority for its use. Beginning, therefore, with this 

 special work, an endeavor will be made to give such information in 

 regard to the operations of the Bureau for the two years as is likely 

 to be of value to persons interested in the animal industry of the 

 country. 



PLEUBO-PNETJMONIA. 



At the time my last report was submitted the contagious pleurp- 

 pneumonia, or European lung plague of cattle, existed not only in 

 the plague spots of the Eastern States, where its presence has been 

 recognized for years, but to an alarming extent in Chicago, one of 

 flie greatest live-stock centers of the country. The knowledge that 

 this deadly contagion had fixed itself so far in the interior, where 

 there was so much danger of its being scattered in many directions 

 by the movement of cattle, caused apprehension and alarm among 

 the cattle owners and business men of all the Western States and 

 Territories. The introduction of cattle, not only from Cook County, 

 but from the whole State of Illinois, was prohibited by the State 

 authorities in many instances. Thus there was at once a most se- 

 rious and widespread interruption of traffic and disturbance of values, 

 in addition to the losses from the disease. 



When the outbreak at Chicago was discovered, and for some 

 months afterwards, both national and State laws applicable to its 

 eradication were imperfect. The appropriation for the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry for the year ending June 30, 1887, authorized the 

 purchase of diseased animals whenever it was necessary to prevent 

 the spread of pleuro-pneunioiiia from one State into another; but as 

 the statute then in force in Illinois required the slaughter of ani- 







