EQUINE PROGRAMS : 



Licensing programs for Riding Schools, Riding Instructors, Horse Auctions 

 and Horse Transporters provide the major source of income for the Division. All 

 three are both consumer and animal protective in intent and have always had a 

 great deal of industry support and interest. The quality of riding instruction 

 available in the state is excellent. Riders from here have won major nation- 

 wide equitation championships as well as medals in both of the most recent 

 Olympic Games. Despite press releases and urging by the Veterinary profession, 

 three horses died of Eastern Encephalitis and two persons contracted the 

 disease, one fatally. Mosquito-borne and almost invariably fatal to the non- 

 vaccinated equine, this disease loss, in horses, would be preventable if a 100% 

 vaccination rate could be obtained. Although both horse and man contract this 

 disease, it is not transmissible from horses to people. 



PET SHOP LICENSING : 



Pet Shop Licensing, with attendant inspection by Agents of the 

 Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Animal 

 Rescue Leagues of Boston and New Bedford has been credited with an improvement 

 in the health and welfare of the small domestic animals and pets sold therein. 

 With greatly improved knowledge of the disease and systems of vaccination, the 

 presence of parvo-virus in pet shops declined dramatically in FY84. Although no 

 Velogenic Viscerotrophic New Castle Disease-exposed birds were reported in the 

 state, the traceback capability provided by mandatory pet shop record-keeping 

 continued to provide us with a large measure of insurance against this poten- 

 tially devastating poultry disease. Interest in the public health aspects of 

 Pscittacosis (Parrot Fever) continues high and the Division participated in a 

 Chlamidia workshop held in New Hampshire in May of 1984. 



POULTRY : 



FY 1984 was marked with the outbreak, in Pennsylvania and nearby states, of 

 Avian Influenza, resulting in losses in excess of 70 million dollars and 17 

 million birds. With its own three million bird poultry industry to protect, 

 Massachusetts took a number of steps to prevent its entry here. An Emergency 

 Order banning poultry shows and sales and the entry of all poultry products from 

 the quarantined area, plus requiring a Prior Entry Permit for all poultry and 

 the cleaning and disinfecting of all vehicles transporting fowl into or through 

 the state, was filed with the Secretary of State. Informational meetings were 

 held across the state for industry poultrymen and exhibitors. An Emergency 

 Disease Outbreak Contingency Plan was written, outlining procedures and person- 

 nel responsibilities in the event of the disease's appearance here. The 

 Division was aided materially in this effort by the Massachusetts Poultry 

 Association, the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation and many state agencies, 

 including Civil Defense, the Offices of Administration and Finance, the State 

 Police and the Department of Environmental Quality Engineering. The disease 

 itself had subsided considerably by the end of FY84 and the outlook was bright 

 for the release from Quarantine of Pennsylvania's large poultry-producing 

 counties. The enormous costs of this disease, as well as its wildlife rate of 

 spread, made it the nation's most costly domestic animal disease outbreak in 

 recent years. On a more optimistic note, a number of Massachusetts poultrymen 

 attended the 50th National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) meeting in 

 Minneapolis in 1984. Since Massachusetts was one of the first states to be cer- 

 tified Pullorum-free and had been a pioneer supporter of the program, the state 

 itself was cited as were many residents who either are still or have been active 

 in the NPIP. 



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