Live Stock. 



356 



[April, 1909. 



throughout the barrios of many munici- 

 palities, and where not a single ordi- 

 nance, executive order, or police regu- 

 lation was put into operation to meet 

 existing conditions. 



In fact, up to the year 1905, in many 

 parts of the Islands there was active 

 opposition against quarantines of all 

 kinds on the^ part of many influential 

 people, to say nothing of the ignorant 

 masses. All attempts made by Govern- 

 ment officials or individuals, to control 

 the movements of animals infected with 

 this disease proved very unpopular. 



The active enforcement of the quran- 

 tine law forbidding the importation of 

 diseased animals into the Philippine 

 Islands and restricting their movements 

 after arrival here was not undertaken 

 until June of the current year. There- 

 after General Order No. 10 made it 

 possible to continue the infection of 

 these Islands, and indefinitely by 

 bringing cattle from the different ports 

 of China and Indo-China in accordance 

 with Rule 11 of that order. Under 

 these conditions it would make little 

 difference whether the Government did 

 or did not suppress the disease in the 

 Islands. It was impossible to control it 

 until the importation of the disease 

 was effectually stopped. 



General Order No. 12, issued November 

 2, 1908, excludes from all ports of these 

 Islands all shipments containing animals 

 infected with or exposed to dangerous 

 communicable diseases. As a business 

 concession, the order provides that 

 healthy animals exposed in an infect- 

 ed shipment, may under certain res- 

 trictions be landed for immediate 

 slaughter only or held on vessels which 

 shall serve as quarantine stations for 

 a period sufficient to determine that 

 the animals will not develop disease 

 after being landed. This is probably 

 the most significant move which has 

 ever been made here in the exclusion 

 of diseases among imported animals. 



If this rule is enforced it will effect 

 a condition to which all the efforts to 

 control rinderpest have looked for- 

 ward. It will leave the officrals free 

 to deal only with the diseases which 

 actually exist here. The last step in 

 this direction has been the codification 

 of all existing rules as General Order 

 No. 13, which is published in the number 

 of the Review. 



One of the serious defects in the 

 system used here has been the lack of a 

 sufficient quantity of serum to prose- 

 cute the work vigorously in all cases. 

 There has also been a constant scarcity 

 of competent veterinarians, which has 

 often prevented their being sent to 



infected places in time to prevent the 

 disease from obtaining a firm foothold. 

 Both of these defects have been effec- 

 tually remedied. The capacity for the 

 manufacture of serum has been enlarged 

 by the removal of the herd to the new 

 quarters of the Alabang stock farm, and 

 the number of veterinarians employed 

 has been increased. It is almost certain 

 that there will ultimately be an avail- 

 able veterinarian for each of the 

 provinces and principal islands. 



Appropriations have been made for 

 the construction and complete equip- 

 ment of live-stock detj6ts to be used as 

 quarantine stations in the cities of 

 Manila, Iloila, and Cebu. These will be 

 modern sanitary places and will replace 

 the very poor corrals now in use by the 

 importers of cattle. It is probable that 

 one or two of these stations will be 

 completed and ready for operation by 

 the middle of the year 1909. As soon as 

 all imported cattle can be discharged 

 into these Government depots and held 

 sufficiently long to make sure that they 

 will not take disease to the province 

 when shipped out of the port of entry, 

 a wonderful advance will have been 

 made in the control of rinderpest. 



Substantial progress has been made in 

 the control of animal diseases in the 

 Philippines, and the country is rapidly 

 being restocked by increase in the native 

 herds. The importation is now almost 

 entirely confined to cattle intended for 

 slaughter in Manila. As soon as there 

 is a local supply of cattle sufficient to 

 meet this demand, the importation from 

 countries in which rinderpest prevails 

 can be discontinued altogether and the 

 work of eradicating this disease in the 

 Philippines limited to handling out- 

 breaks, which occur from infection 

 within our borders. This will insure a 

 condition of affairs which should bring 

 general prosperity to the whole country, 

 and animal industry can again assume 

 the importance which it had during the 

 decade beginning about lb85. 



A great deal of the campaign against 

 this disease has necessarily been of an 

 educational nature. The people in 

 general have had to be taught the 

 importance of the disease which swooped 

 down upon the animal industry of the 

 country without warning and almost 

 destroyed it. They have been helpless, 

 largely because they have not under- 

 stood its nature, importance, nor how it 

 might be handled. A constant educa- 

 tional campaign has been waged for a 

 number of years, as evidenced by such 

 publications as the catechism on 

 infective animal diseases, published as 

 Vol. L, No. 3, of the Philippine Agri- 



