Disease Reporting 



A look at the future 



Experience gained in the \K epidemic em- 

 phasized the need of keeping personnel alert 

 to the constant threat of disease whose ap- 

 pearance in public stockyards could wreck the 

 livestock industry. Equally essential is com- 

 petence in the early diagnosis of diseases. 



Inspectors examine livestock for symptoms of disease. 



Training programs will be improvetl to give 

 inspectors increasing information about dis- 

 ease conditions. Interchange of per.sonnel will 

 be made between stockyards inspection and 

 cooperative disease eradication programs to 

 increase familiarity with all Division activities. 

 A manual is being written that will bring 

 greater uniformity in the handling of live.stock 

 at public yards. 



Stockyards inspectors stand in the first line 

 of defense in protecting the livestock industry 

 from the ravages of communicable diseases. 

 Continuing efforts to imjjrove ins]:)ection pro- 

 ficiency in the early detection of disease will 

 further assure the public that its food supply 

 is well guarded. 



Development of reporting 



When Norsemen landed on North American 

 shores around the year 1004, they brought with 

 them cattle, sheep, horses, and goats. By the 

 time Jamestown was settled, these domestic 

 animals had vanished. The Spaniards brought 

 horses, but they remained in the west. 



So when a bull and three heifers from Eng- 

 land arrived at Plymouth colony in 1624, they 

 came to an environment that was more nearly 

 disease-free than it has e\er been since. 



Communities developed, but remained iso- 

 lated. Movement of animals was local. The 

 few early records available indicate that ap- 

 parently serious losses did occur in certain 

 localities. Generally, however, when diseases 

 were introduced they did not become wide- 

 spread. 



Early agricultural journals, starting with 

 the "American Farmer" in 1819, attempted to 

 l)ublish reports of animal diseases. Soon many 

 of them had regular veterinary columns. Un- 

 til the publication of the "American Veterinary 

 Review" in 1877, these journals were the prin- 

 ciple sources of information on incidence of 

 animal di.seases. 



When the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 

 Bureau of Animal Industry came into being in 

 1884, more attention was given to preparing 

 otticial statistical reports showing the incidence 

 of certain livestock diseases and the extent of 

 loss suffered. A substantial part of this infor- 

 mation came from routine program reports by 

 State and Federal inspectors. 



More than 35 years ago, the Secretary of the 

 United States Livestock Sanitary As.sociation 

 urged that national veterinary vital statistics 

 be collected and distributed. This recommenda- 

 tion was based on the conclusion that such in- 

 formation was essential to disease control. The 

 Association, recognizing the need for a national 

 reporting service, adopted a resolution recom- 



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