THE COW IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 109 



Many people are of the opinion that this out- 

 break took many herds of dairy cattle, but the 

 number that were slaughtered, when compared 

 to the whole number in the United States, would 

 be a drop in the bucket. 



If this disease would gain a foothold on 

 American soil so it could not be eradicated, it 

 would be a serious factor in lowering the cost of 

 dairy cattle, as no one would care to pay a high 

 price for such cattle when there was such a dis- 

 ease lurking in this country. It would mean that 

 several of our best breeders would quit the breed- 

 ing of this class of cattle, as they would figure 

 that the risk would be too great. This would also 

 make the risk so great from showing animals 

 that ver)^ few owners of high class animals 

 would want to take the risk that would be neces- 

 sary to show their cattle at shows. This condi- 

 tion once getting a foothold in a dairy, even 

 though the government did not quarantine and 

 slaughter, would in the course of a few weeks 

 reduce the herd in producing ability to a point 

 far below that which it had possibly taken the 

 breeder many years to reach. Its effect upon 

 the dairy industry would very favorably compare 

 with that of infectious abortion ; it would simply 

 cripple many of the dairymen to such an extent 

 that they would quit the business, as they could 

 not stand the losses it would bring about. The 

 ease with which it may be transmitted by various 

 animals and other agents, including feeds, man- 

 ures, grains, hays, hired help and cattle buyers 



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