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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF 



LIBRARY 



REOErvr.D 

 • JUL • 2 1924 * 



B,£,J9f|k»s««t« 



DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 662 



Washington, D. C. 



Issued May, 1918. Revised, June, 1924 



VESICULAR STOMATITIS OF HORSES AND CATTLE 



By John R Mohlee, 

 Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry 



CONTENTS 



Revved, 

 follows 



Page 



History and characteristics 1 



Etiology 3 



Symptoms and lesions 3 



jeage 



Contagiousness , 4 



Differential diagnosis 6 



Treatment 8 



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 remount stations in the Central West, where 

 large numbers of animals had been collected prior to shipment to 

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

 found ideal conditions for its spread among thousands of these ani- 

 mals closely quartered in barns and pens. From these remount 

 stations in the Central West the disease became distributed by follow- 

 ing 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 dur- 

 ing the recent war this copy was not received until several months 



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