DIVISION OF ANIMAL HEALTH 

 Mabel A. Owen, Director 



The control and eradication of livestock diseases are matters 

 of supreme importance to us all. Success directly affects the prices 

 of all of the foods we eat and much of the fiber with which we are 

 clothed. Caught as we all are between the horns of rising costs of 

 materials and transportation, the farmer knows that efficient disease 

 control can be the narrow margin between success and bankruptcy. 



The livestock industry itself is under ever increasing pressures. 

 Between natural demand and inflation, the cost of an animal is at an 

 all-time high. Replacement costs therefore become the leading economic 

 factor to producers. Foreign and out-of-state demand for cattle 

 continues to rise well above the available supply. Dairy production 

 records must be maintained; indeed they must be exceeded each year. 

 Only through the strictest possible adherence to all the irules of 

 good husbandry - and good disease control practices - can this happen. 

 And happen it must, to feed our own country as well as the ever- 

 widening market abroad. 



The Division of Animal Health employs four Veterinarians and 

 eleven field Inspectors to work with the farmer and producer to 

 achieve that goal. With the help of the Legislature, for the passage 

 of laws and the foresight to fund them, excellent progress is being 

 made. The Commonwealth remains Hog Cholera free, Pullorum-Typhoid 

 free in poultry and has certified-free status in both Hog and Bovine 

 Brucellosis. The effort to maintain this is unremitting for diseases 

 take no holiday. 



BOVINE BRUCELLOSIS CONTROL AND ERADICATION 



At the end of this fiscal year, there was only one herd under 

 quarantine for Bovine Brucellosis, a ver^ large herd maintained under 

 loose-housing conditions. Infection in this herd has been reduced to 

 a very low incidence with reason for further optimism. The Market 

 Cattle Inspection (MCI) traceback system for Brucellosis surveillance 

 has been working very well as has the early warning Brucellosis Ring 

 Test (BRT) done on milk samples going through marketing channels. 

 The retesting of cattle imported into Massachusetts is also a 

 continuing program. State-mandated and funded Calfhood Vaccination 

 against Brucellosis doubled during this fiscal year. This particular 

 program, heavily favored by farmers and producers, offers the greatest 

 protection against Brucellosis for the future. 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 



With the recent resurgence of Tuberculosis in humans, there has 

 been a strong effort by the Division of Animal Health to keep herd- 

 testing up to and often well above the mandatory rate. Market cattle 

 testing has served us well as an on-going surveillance program, but 

 the main thrust of disease control in this area is the mandated testing 

 of every producing dairy herd in the Commonwealth on a once-in-three 

 years rotation. Since many dairies sell milk into market areas 

 requiring an annual Tuberculosis test, the two programs result in close 

 to fifty percent of the dairy herds being tested at least every two 

 years. There were 31,891 animals in 671 herds tested last year with 

 the detection of 16 reactor animals. Tuberculosis is insidious in its 

 appearance and spreads too rapidly to be allowed any degree of laxity 

 in control. 



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