7o8 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



among the specific diseases subject to obligatory report to 

 the state veterinarian or other official, who would quaran- 

 tine and otherwise restrict the movement of the diseased or 

 suspected cattle. Indeed such laws already exist in some 

 states but so far as I have learned the statutes do not clearly 

 define "contagious abortion", but leave the definition to the 

 attending veterinarian or the breeder. As a result the stat- 

 utes and the disease have not come in conflict. Thus far it 

 has been impossible to define "contagious abortion" in such 

 a way as to render a law regarding it workable. If it is 

 defined as the presence of the B. abortus in the bodies of 

 cattle, its presence in the milk of a large percentage of 

 dairy cows would render the application of such a law im- 

 possible without prostrating the dairy industry. Even then 

 the B. abortus would still flourish in other animals. If a 

 law is to be madte which will apply only to the B. abortus 

 in the uterus, it is the common view that it persists in the 

 uterine cavity only for a few weeks after the termination of 

 pregnancy, and quarantine for those few weeks could not 

 and would not favorably affect the reproductive powers of 

 the animal. The chief objection to legal restrictions is that, 

 if the report of abortion be made compulsory, the breeder 

 can not afford to call the veterinarian, since his attendance 

 and report mean quarantine with financial loss or ruin, 

 while the restrictions placed upon the herd are absolutely 

 impotent to better conditions. 



D. The Genital Infections of Cattle as an Economic Problem. 



No infection or group of infections of domestic animals 

 offers at present a more serious or pressing economic prob- 

 lem. The infections are essentially omnipresent and im- 

 peril life and fertility at every step. The spermatozoa and 

 ova must run a gauntlet of threatening infection before fer- 

 tilization may occur. The fertiHzed egg has its perils as it 

 passes through the oviducts, and throughout pregnancy the 

 peril of infection both to the intra-uterine young and to the 

 mother never ceases. The danger does not end with par- 

 turition but the infection, persisting in both the mother and 



