The Democratic advocate., 1908-12-18
HOOP mouth DISEASE
Been KNOWN FOR MORE than Two
CENTURIES In EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
No Danger Of Human Beings Con-
tracting the Disease

is now quarantined, has attracted
much attention, and our readers Will
probably like to know just what the
disease is. 1t is described as follows
in an article in the New York Tri-
bune:
.Inasmuch as the dread disease
known as ''foot-and-mouth disease" has
been discovered as coming from the
East Buffalo stock yards, and feeding
cattle were taken therefrom into
western Pennsylvania and also into
several counties in western New YORK,
| think a brief article will be read
with interest. Before speaking of the
disease | desire to say great praise
! is due to Dr. Leonard Pearson, State
t Veterinarian of Pennsylvania, and also
Commissioner Pearson, of the State
of New York, for the very prompt
manner in which they have set their
| inspectors at work ferreting out the
source and distribution of cattle that
| left the Buffalo yards. DIR. Melvin,
chief of the Animal Husbandry De-
partment at Washington, has furnish
| ed federal aid, and there is no pos
sible danger of this disease ever ex-
| tending over any great area In thls
country, as practically every state In
| the Union now has fairly we'll or
ganized department of agriculture,
and upon it's first appearance 1t Will
| be checked. Thus there are no valid
reasons for cattle owners to go into
Mysteries over it, nor for city peo-
| pie to fear that they are going to be
sent to early graves by reason of eat
| ing the flesh or drinking the milk that
comes from the country. Neither
foot and mouth disease nor any other
highly infectious disease, it is safe to
say, will ever in this country cause
the losses that England and continen-
tai Europe sustained in years gone
by as the true nature of such dis
eases is now well known, and the
farmers of America are now and al
ways will be too much on the alert for
any disease to get much of a start
before they will seek veterinary aid
and state aid and keep it localized un-
til it can be stamped out. Yet, with
all this in view, as it is now known
that this disease is in this country,
and there are likely to be future out
breaks of it, it becomes all livestock
owners to know what it is, its origin
and it's symptoms.
Scientific investigation has not as
yet determined under what conditions
the germ or virus may develop. In
fact, it is not as yet known whether
it is micrObe or poison or virus
which develops in certain soils. In
the winter of 10000 there was an
outbreak of it in Massachusetts, and
Vermont. In one case it was thought
to have been brought to a section
in Massachusetts by foreign hides
l personally went TO Investigate in
Vermont and could find no evidence
of the infection coming from any
source at all. In 1888 l personally
knew of an outbreak in the state OF
New York on a farm where no strange
cattle had been brought in several
months. 1t was duly stamped out.
Thus l have no hesitation in saying
there is liability of an outbreak any
where and at any time, and the thing
for farmers to do is to be on the alert
and to waste no time, in seeking vet
erinary aid While it has been known
for over two centuries in Holland
and other countries of Europe, it was
as late as 1889 before Great Britain
suffered severely from the scourge,
for scourge it is when a farm once
becomes infected with it, All OF the
cloven hoofed animals are more sus-
ceptible to the contagion than the
horse or several toe footed animals.
This is no doubt due to the germ or
virus being conveyed by moist soil
or filth containing it up between the
sections of the bifurcated foot to the
skin just above the foot, which is the
point of inoculation when it is moist
or perhaps little sore or tender
pustule is soon formed which pro-
duces a violent itching. The animal
licks it to get relief and then the
mouth becomes affected and blisters
and pustuleS soon appear. The whole
system becomes more or less fevered.
The animal is unable to eat any solid
food, and unless it is furnished nour-
ishment in a liquid form will likely
starve before the disease will run its
course as an eruptive fever, which
lasts from ten to fifteen days. If the
animal survives, it is practically i'm
mune from the disease ever afterward.
In extremely bad cases where moth
ing is done to alleviate the disease
the hoofs sometimes drop off.
"The milk of all cows suffering
from this disease is wholly unfit to
use for either human or animal food;
also the flesh is unfit for human food;
yet the danger of conveying the dis
ease to the human by the use of either
the milk or flesh is extremely doubt
full There are on record a few cases
where it was thought to have been
thus conveyed; but the chief source
of human infection is direct inocula-
ton of the poision or germ entering
the system through abrasions of the
skin or sores on the hands.
'It is not very fatal disease in
animals, the loss being largely from
dairy herds becoming worthless, the
loss Of hoofs Of other animals, and
worse than ,all-the soil where the
animals run becoming inoculated to
the extent OF making it a source of
continual danger. Therefore, all
cattle, sheep Or swine owners on the
first appearance of disease of the ma
ture described, should do their utmost
to stamp it out Our federal govern
ment has been very alert and gener-
GUS with the livestock owners of this
country, and has thus far deemed 1T
better and safer for the countrys
good to buy all ailing animals and pay
for the; also to disinfect their
premises; and it becomes all live
stock owners to aid the state and ma
tional governments all they can in
their work of preventing this disease
from ever getting foothold in this
country, even If for short time a
rigid quarantine has to be enforced.
The germs or ryirrS-.wnicheyer it NAV