386 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



ately to mild cases in the hope that this will result in an immediate, 

 mild attack and immunity for several j^ears thereafter. Such 

 immunity, however, is very uncertain. 



Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, on account of their 

 comparatively isolated positions, have been more successful in keep- 

 ing out the disease. The outbreaks in those countries have been 

 more sporadic, and by resorting to immediate slaughter the authori- 

 ties have been able to stamp them out. Great Britain has applied 

 both quarantine and slaughter for many years, and in an outbreak 

 near Dublin in 1912 measures were adopted which were even more 

 stringent than any that have been used in the United States. A 

 British official (Cope) asserted in 1899 that after his country's ex- 

 perience with this disease it was " more dreaded by the farmers and 

 stock raisers of Great Britain than cattle plague or pleuropneumonia, 

 and they are now willing and ready to put up with any restrictions, 

 of however drastic a character, considered necessarj'^ by the central 

 department to stamp it out." The British authorities have suc- 

 ceeded in suppressing each outbreak, but reinfection often occurs 

 from the neighboring continent. At the present time (April, 1922) 

 Great Britain is having a siege of the disease, but is applying vigor- 

 ous measures for its suppression. 



In November, 1906, the disease reached Belgium from France, 

 where it was quite prevalent, and by the end of the year every 

 Province in Belgium was affected, and the Netherlands as welL 

 Efforts to eradicate it from Belgium were unavailing. The Nether- 

 lands apparently succeeded in stamping it out for about six months, 

 but it reappeared there. 



The disease is also more or less prevalent in Central Europe, Spain, 

 and in the Balkan countries. 



Australia and New Zealand have remained free from it. 



We have less accurate information regarding Asia and Africa, but 

 the disease is known to prevail in Japan and China and in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, and it is doubtful whether any considerable part of the 

 Orient is free from it. 



In South America it is reported as common in Brazil, Argentina, 

 and Uruguay, and it probably exists in other countries. 



Canada and Mexico are fortunately free from the disease. 



Outbreaks in the United States. — Foot-and-mouth disease has ap- 

 peared in the United States on six different occasions — 1870, 1880, 

 1884, 1902, 1908, and 1914. 



An extensive outbreak in 1870 was introduced by Avny of Canada, 

 where the infection was brought by an importation of cattle from 

 Scotland. It spread into the New England States and New York 

 and appears to have been arrested within a few months. Its failure 

 to spread more extensivel}^ and its early disappearance have been 



