16 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



The lienis in the nineteen stables referred to above contained 398 ani- 

 mals, of which 12 were found to be sick or only partially recovered at 

 the time of inspection; 3 cows had recently been exchanged while sick, 

 a,ud 18 recent deaths had occurred. The total number of animals which 

 had recently sickened with symptoms of pleuro-pneumonia in the above 

 stables was, consequently, 33, or 8.3 j)er cent. 



This inspection, while it cannot be taken as a very accurate indica- 

 tion of the proportion of the Baltimore dairy cattle which are con- 

 stantly affected with pleuropneumonia, is nevertheless suflScient to 

 show that a very large proportion of the stables are infected, and that 

 many cases of the disease occur. 



A considerable number of inoculation and cohabitation experiments 

 have been made and are still in progress, and will be given in detail in 

 the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry. 



The following statement was prepared for the use of the House Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture in January, 1884 : 



EXTENT OF PLEURO-PNEUMONIA AND THE IMPORTANCE OF NATIONAL 

 ACTION IN REGARD TO THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 



The extent of territory infeeterl with contagions plcuro-pueamonia of cattle and 

 the number of ani'nals actnally sntt'eriug from this disease, are insignificant in com- 

 parison with the annual direct aud indirect losses traceable to it, and the danger to 

 which our immense live-stock industry is continually subjected. 



In Connecticut two herds were infected during the past summer, in which 12 ani- 

 mals were exposed and 7 contracted the disease. In one of these herds the affected 

 animal was destroyed, and at last accounts no others had contracted the disease; in 

 the other herd 4 animals had died, or had been killed, and 2 with very extensively dis- 

 eased lungs remained in quarantine. Both of these were Jerseys, and the owner re- 

 fused to have them destroyed. What has been done with them, or what will be, I am 

 unable to say, as the State authorities seem powerless to proceed beyond quarantine, 

 and this seems to have been bj' no means secure. 



In the State of New York, although the disease is almost entirely confined to the 

 western eiul of Long Island, to Staten Island, and New York City, these localities are 

 quite extensively infected, and as there are more than two thousand stables, some of 

 which contain several hundred cows, and many of which contain from .'jO to 100, it is 

 the most dangerous district in the country at this time. Recent reports are to the 

 effect that the disease is extending through the river counties, and exists in herds 

 located from 50 to 60 miles north of New York City. How many cattle are affected 

 in these counties I am unable to say, but the existeuce of the disease here is really of 

 much greater importance to the country at large than the number of diseased ani- 

 mals would lead one to suppose, because it is a district where many thoroughbred cattle 

 are raised and from which they are shipped to all parts of the United States. 



New .Jersey was recently supposed to be nearly free from pleuro-pneumonia, but the 

 iact that a number of cases occuried without the knowledge of the State authorities, 

 that a still larger number of herds were lately known to be infected in Union aud 

 Essex Counties, and that a very extensive outbreak in Hunterdon County was re- 

 •cently traced by means of sick cattle shipped to the New York market, and discovered 

 by the insp<M;tor employed by the United States Department of Agriculture who is 

 stationed at Jersey City, leads to the suspicion that a thorough inspection of the 

 State might bring to light still other cases. The Hunterdon County outbreak was 

 one of the most extensive that has recently occurred. It was supposed to have origi- 

 nated from a car-load of cows brought from Pennsylvania ; but where these were in- 



