Live Stock. 



44 



[July, 1911. 



immediately used tor the purposes 

 required, whereas in the ordinary way 

 the sawn timber must be allowed to 

 season for a year or more before being 

 worked up. It is claimed, also, that 



there is no waste in lumber which has 

 been treated, as the process stops all 

 warpage and splitting, as well as render- 

 ing it absolutely immune from dry rot 

 and borer insects. 



LIVE STOCK 



BRIEF REPORT ON THE VETERIN- 

 ARY INSTITUTIONS OP JAPAN. 



By R. P. Knight, 

 Assistant Chief Veterinarian, 

 and 



C. G. Thomson, 

 Superintendent of the Serum 

 Laboratory, 



(Prom the Philippine Agricultural 

 Review, Vol. IV., No. 3, March, 1911.) 



Organization. 

 The veterinary work forms one of the 

 divisions of the bureau of agriculture, 

 which is under the administration of 

 the Minister of Agriculture and Com- 

 merce, and to it are assigned the inspec- 

 tion of meat, the inspection and quaran- 

 tine of imported animals, and the 

 control of contagious and infectious 

 animal diseases. Although the im- 

 provement of equines is left entirely in 

 the hands of the military department, 

 the remainder of the animal husbandry 

 work comes within the field of the 

 bureau of agriculture, and so much has 

 been done along this line by the import- 

 ation of foreign stock that in some 

 localities it is difficult to find an animal 

 of pure Japanese blood. Numerous 

 publications pertaining to the veterinary 

 work and organization have been issued 

 in the form of pamphlets and compil- 

 ations. 



Rinderpest Eradication. 

 The work of the eradication of rinder- 

 pest in Japan by the bureau of agricul- 

 ture is greatly facilitated by existing 

 provisions, not only for the slaughter 

 of animals affected with this disease, 

 but also for those suspected of being 

 infected. Quarantines are maintained 

 against the districts where disease 

 prevails by an efficient police force in 

 such a manner that there is little danger 

 of the extension of the area infected. 

 As a matter of fact, however, the 

 Japanese people have such a hearty 

 respect for law and order that there are 



few attempts to violate any quarantine 

 regulations that are imposed. 



In addition to the slaughter of the 

 animals affected and those directly 

 exposed, and strict quarantine over the 

 infected locality, the injection of anti- 

 rinderpest serum is practised upon the 

 neighbouring animals which are not 

 known to have been directly exposed to 

 the disease. The Japanese officials 

 believe that anti-rinderpest serum is 

 valuable in stamping out an epizootic of 

 rinderpest, and that in the majority of 

 cases a dose of 100 cubic centimeters can 

 be depended upon to confer a passive 

 immunity to the average animal for 

 a period of two or three weeks. It 

 appears that their conclusions regarding 

 the value of anti-rinderpest serum have 

 been drawn principally from literature. 

 They use serum largely on those indivi- 

 duals which they believe are not exposed 

 and where thoy do not expect the disease 

 to appear. The fact that they do not 

 have a large number of cases among 

 animals that have been injected with 

 anti-rinderpest serum seems to be due to 

 the fact that very few of the injected 

 animals are actually exposed. Their 

 tests regarding the efficiency of this 

 serum have been, so far as could be 

 ascertained, the simultaneous injection 

 of serum and virulent blood. It is 

 believed that the simultaneous injection 

 of large doses of serum will greatly 

 reduce the percentage of mortality in 

 animals that are given virulent blood, 

 but this does not prove that the injec- 

 tion of anti-rinderpest serum will prevent 

 an attack when an animal is exposed 

 several days after the injection of serum. 

 However, some of the Japanese, especi- 

 ally Dr. H. Tokishig, Superintendent of 

 the Institute for the Infectious Diseases 

 of Animals, believe the injection of anti- 

 rinderpest serum to be of little value 

 except when used in connection with 

 other measures, such as the slaughter of 

 infected individuals and those directly 

 exposed, strict quarantine of the infected 

 district, etc. During the past few years 

 outbreaks of rinderpest in Japan have 

 been largely due to the importation of 

 disease from China and Korea. On 

 several occasions they have suffered 

 from small outbreaks which have been 



