UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 





ft BULLETIN No. 662 



Contribution from the Bureau of Animal Industry 

 JOHN K. MOHLER, Chief 



JZ&Qj-u 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



May 1, 1918 



VESICULAR STOMATITIS OF HORSES AND CATTLE. 



By John R. Mohler, 

 Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



History and characteristics 1 



Etiology 3 



Symptoms and lesions 4 



Contagiousness 5 



Differential diagnosis 7 



Treatment 9 



HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS. 



Vesicular stomatitis is known in Europe and South Africa, and 

 has been observed occasionally in sporadic form in the United 

 States, but without attracting any particular attention. During the 

 early fall of 1916, however, it became very extensive in certain 

 sections of this country, being especially prevalent in Nebraska, 

 South Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming. It was first reported among 

 the horses and mules at remomit stations in the Central West, where 

 large numbers of animals had been collected prior to shipment to 

 Europe for use in the trench and British Armies. Here the disease 

 found ideal conditions for its spread among thousands of these animals 

 closely quartered in barns and pens. From these remount stations 

 in the Central West the disease became distributed by following the 

 channels of trade from the westward markets eastward as far as the 

 Atlantic coast. The affection did not stop even there, as several 

 shipments were made abroad while the horses were in the incubative 

 stage of the disease, and infected American horses were found shortly 

 after arrival in France. 



Strange as it may seem, the first information that this country 

 was experiencing an outbreak of vesicular stomatitis was reported in 

 an article by the French veterinarian Jacoulet, which appeared in the 

 Recueil de Medecine Veterinaire, December 30, 1915. Owing to the 

 difficulties attending the delivery of these European periodicals since 

 the beginning of the war this copy was not received until several 



41674°— 18— Bull. 662 



