THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 
The Bureau of Animal Industry was established by an act of 
Congress approved May 29,1884. This act provided for a chief, a clerk, 
and ‘‘a force sufficient for this purpose, not to exceed twenty persons at 
any one time.”’ 
WHY THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY WAS ESTABLISHED. 
The immediate cause of the establishment of this Bureau was the 
urgent need by the Federal Government of reliable official information 
concerning the nature and prevalence of animal diseases and of the 
means required to control and to eradicate them, and, also, the necessity 
of having an executive agency to put into effect the measures necessary 
to stop the spread of disease and to protect the animal industry of the 
nation. 
Our exported cattle and sheep had recently been refused admission 
into Great Britain and condemned to slaughter upon the docks where 
landed because of alleged contagious diseases in this country dangerous 
to foreign live stock. Our pork had been prohibited entrance into most 
of the countries of continental Europe because it was alleged to be af- 
fected with trichine, and, therefore, dangerous to the health and lives of 
the consumers. ‘Twenty-five to thirty million dollars worth of hogs were 
dying each year from contagious disease. Cattle raisers were in a con- 
dition bordering upon panic from fear of Texas fever and contagious 
pleuro-pneumonia, and State restrictions intended to guard against these 
diseases were seriously interfering with interstate traffic in bovine 
animals. Sheep raising had become precarious in many sections because 
of scab and other parasitic diseases. 
These injurious conditions were so burdensome, and aroused such 
apprehensions of far greater losses in the future, that there was an agita- 
tion and repeated demands for governmental assistance which culminated 
in 1884 in the enactment of the organic act of this Bureau. 
The losses from diseases among animals had long been great, and 
the second Commissioner of Agriculture had occasion to call attention, 
in his second and third annual reports, to ‘‘ the prevalence of fatal mala- 
dies among all varieties of farm animals, resulting in the annual loss of 
not less than fifty million dollars.’’ In 1870, Commissioner Capron re- 
newed the subject, referring particularly to a forthcoming report upon 
pleuro-pneumonia and Texas fever, diseases then prevalent and recently 
investigated under the supervision of the Department. He says in his 
annual report: 
‘“The value of stock lost annually from disease is enormous, and 
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