Special Report of the State Veterinarian on Foot and Mouth 



Disease in Virginia, Its Cause, How Spread Among 



Cattle, Other Ruminants, and Swine, 



Its Control and Eradication. 



During the month of November, 1014, the first cases of Foot 

 and Month Disease were sent into Virginia by a shipment of feed- 

 ing cattle from the State of Maryland. This shipment went to 

 Loudoun county. The outbreak was controlled and eradicated 

 there. 



Later, the disease was sent us in a shipment of bulls to the 

 Valentine's Meat Juice Company, Richmond, Va., from the Chicago 

 Yards. Said shipment was permitted by the U. S. Bureau of Ani- 

 mal Industry. Upon reaching Richmond some of the bulls were 

 found to be affected with foot and mouth disease. However, with 

 the prompt assistance of Dr. Henry Marshall, Inspector in Charge 

 of the U. S. Bureau force, located in Richmond, we at once had 

 the shipment slaughtered under strict inspection, disinfecting every- 

 thing. The State immediately placed a strict quarantine around 

 the Valentine plant. Not a case of the disease spread from this 

 center. 



Sometime later, a shipment of hogs for slaughter, accompanied 

 by a U. S. Bureau permit, from the West, reached W. S. Forbes' 

 abattoir in Richmond, and many of the hogs proved to be affected 

 with Foot and Mouth Disease. 



It appears that the hogs, like the bulls, were started on the 

 shipment in a healthy condition but had been exposed to the dis- 

 ease before shipment, and thus the trouble broke out while the 

 shipment was in transit, or about the time the said hogs reached 

 Virginia. 



The diseased hogs which reached the Forbes plant (this plant 

 is adjacent to the Richmond Union Stock Yards) caused us con- 

 siderable alarm, as we realized the fact that the virus might be 

 carried into the Stock Yards by birds, rats, or in many other ways. 



At once a fight was started to disinfect the Forbes plant, clean- 

 ing and disinfecting according to U. S. regulations. Owing to the 

 fact that the Forbes plant was so near the Union Stock Yards, the 

 State authorities deemed it necessary to quarantine the said Stock 

 Yards along with the Forbes plant, and to have the same policed, 

 cleaned, and disinfected. This was done as effectually as possible. 



Nothing appeared to get out from the infected premises for a 

 while, but later an outbreak occurred on the well known Miller 

 farm, which is located on the Seven Pines Railway line, about five 



