A State Veterinarian's 1899 Warning: Fund Animal Disease Control or Pay for It Later

STATE VETERINARIAN'S REPORT.

S. B. Nelson, the state veterinarian, has submitted his biennial report to the governor and legislature of 1899. The veterinarian's headquarters are at the Pullman Agricultural College, and he seems to have done good work in discovering and suppressing veterinary diseases.

During the past two years 16,643 animals were examined. Of this number 452 were horses, 691 cattle and 3,500 sheep. Out of this number 108 horses and 7 cattle were found diseased.

The diseases coming under the observation of Veterinarian Nelson are cerebrospinal meningitis, 21 horses; catarrh, 17 horses; actinomycosis, 5 cows; glanders, 20 horses; mange, 10 horses; epizootic pharyngitis, 40 horses; tuberculosis, 17 cows were given the tuberculin test; black leg in calves and distemper and influenza in horses have also been quite prevalent. The veterinary surgeon earnestly advises farmers to vaccinate their animals as a preventive of black leg.

The state seems to be free from hog cholera and sheep scab.

The outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis at Waterville in the winter of 1896-97 was caused from the horses eating certain moulds found on straw, especially that found in the bottom of the stacks. Only those horses that had been running to straw stacks were affected. This trouble is not contagious; that is, horses cannot contract it from each other, but horses once affected do not yield readily to treatment, which consists of change of feed and one-drachm doses of potassium iodide given three times a day to those horses that do not succumb within a few hours. The general symptoms of this disease are paralysis and inability to swallow.

Mange is classed as an entirely needless disease, but one which is causing considerable loss to the people of the southeastern portion of the state. It is caused by a small parasite burrowing in the skin, and can be checked by proper sanitary regulations.

Thirty-four horses were given the mallein test for glanders, of which twenty reacted and were destroyed. If all suspicious cases that are reported could be investigated, this dread disease could be eradicated from the state.

Since tuberculosis is communicable from man to cow and vice versa, it becomes a serious question, and it will only be a matter of time when it will gain a foothold in the herds of the state and prove a menace to the health of its citizens if constant vigilance is not exercised at the present time to keep the herds free. With the importation of high-bred animals from the east the danger of its constant introduction and spread is increased.

There are in the state about 1,000,000 head of cattle, at an assessed value of $6,000,000, but a real value of nearer $25,000,000, and a sufficient appropriation is asked from the legislature to furnish needed protection to this immense industry. Two years ago an insufficient appropriation was made, and in one instance alone it cost the people of the state several times more than the sum asked for because the state veterinarian had to wait until funds could be furnished before the trouble could be investigated.