1^ I B R A J{ Y 



UN1VEK8ITV OF 



^ CALIFORNIA. > 

 INVESTIGATION OP SWINE PLAGUi 



INTEODUCTORY. 



CougTOSs having previously appropriated the srnii of .$10,000 for de- 

 frayiug the expenses of a commission to investigate and determine the 

 causes producing, and, if possible, discover remedies for, some of the 

 more contagious and destructive diseases incident to domesticated ani- 

 mals, early in August last the Commissioner of Agriculture appointed 

 examiners in the States of Xew York, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, 

 Missouri, and Korth Carohna, to conduct such investigation. StiU later 

 in the season, on receiving information that not only diseases among 

 swine were prevailing to an alarming extent in Yirginia, but that a fatal 

 disease resembling j^leuro-iineumonia or contagious lung fever was de- 

 stroying a good many valuable dairy cattle in some localities of that 

 State, an additional examiner was appointed and instructed to investi- 

 gate and report upon all the facts connected with the condition of both 

 classes of animals in the infected districts of this State. 



In the preliminary report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 

 1877, on the subject of diseases of domesticated animals, a tabular state- 

 ment gives the total value of farm animals lost in the United States 

 duiing that year, principally from infectious and contagious diseases, at 

 816,053,428. These losses were based ujionas accurate returns as could 

 be obtained in the absence of an absolute census, but as they included 

 data from but eleven hundred ajid twenty-five counties (about one-half 

 the whole number of counties in the United States), the above sum 

 falls far below the aggregate losses for that year. About two-thirds of 

 this sum was occasioned by the loss of swine by diseases presumed to 

 be of an infectious and contagious character. ZSTotwithstanding these 

 maladies had their origin near a quarter of a century ago, and had rap- 

 idly spread from one State and one county to another, there was great 

 diversity of opinion as to their contagious or non-contagious character. 

 IMany intelligent farmers and stock-growers insisted that they were not 

 transmissible from one animal to another, while perhaps equally as 

 large a number contended that the diseases were of a highly infectious 

 and contagious nature. As this was regarded as one among the most 

 important facts to be determined by the investigation, two of the exam- 

 iners devoted most of their time to exjieriraents looking to a solution of 

 this problem. 



As the number and value of the annual losses among swine were 

 much heavier than among all other classes of domesticated animals com- 



