The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-05-17
EPIDEMIC OF FOOT
 AND MOUTH DISEASE

(Continued from First Page.)
 for slaughter at Detroit. while the
 remainder were shipped to Buffalo
 and some were reShipped to Dan
 vile and Watsontown. Pa.. where
 the disease was first observed some
 days later. The disease spread to
 various places in Pennsylvania and
 New York and to one locality in
 Maryland.
 Three separate series of experi-
 ments were made by Doctors MohleE
 and Rosenau. Young cattle and sheep
 were inoculated with vaccine virus
 from both firms. FoOt-and-mOuth dis
 ease was produced in experimental
 animals by the use of vaccine of the
 same strain obtained from both
 sources. while other strains of vaccine
 tested gave negative results. The dis
 ease was also transmitted from one
 animal to another through several series, in two instances by natural modes of infection.
 '"The investigation also indicates that the outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in New England. in 1902-3. were probably due to contaminated vaccine of Japanese origin from the Mulford Company.
 while an investigation was made at that time. the results were con fusing so that it was not definitely determined that the outbreaks were
 due to contaminated vaccine virus. In the recent investigation by Doctors Mohler and Rosenau, however. they used animals which had been vac cinated and were therefore immune to vaccinia or cowpox. so that in case the infection of foot -and-mouth dis ease was present in the vaccine under suspicion the lesions Of that disease would not be suppressed or obscured by those of vaccinia- By this method and by means of in1ravenouS inocula- ton they were able to detect the con- dominating infection when it might
 not otherwise have been discovered. ''The fact that the infection was present in the vaccine virus of the Mulford Company for so long @ period. but was not transmitted to outside cattle. was doubtless due to this firm S
 practice of killing its calves after talk | ing the vaccine virus. Parke. Davis x Co, on the other hand, rented their calves and placed them again on the | market a short time after the vaccine material was taken In this way the disease spread from the vaccine stables | of Parlxe Davis & Co.,, but not from | those of the Mulford Company. al- though it was the vaccine virus rom | the latter establishment that infected 1 the formers cattle.
 According to Doctors Mohler and Rosenau. foot-and-mouth dis ease is primarily and principally a disease of cattle. and affects man only secondarily and casually Ch1l- dren are occasionally infected by drinking unboiled milk during the periods in which the disease is pre- valent in the neighborhood. while persons in charge of diseased anl- mals may become infected through contact with the diseased parts or by milking. slaughtering. or caring for the animals. The disease when communicated to man. however, is very seldom fatal. the affection usually being too slight to come to the notice of the family physician. "As soon as the facts regarding the contamination of vaccine became | known the licenses of the two firms | involved were at once suspended, all 1 the suspected vaccine virus on hand was destroyed and that upon the | market withdrawn. and other measures | of a radical nature were taken "The report comments the intelligent and prompt cooperation of the Null | ford Company and Parke, Davis & | Co. in accomplishing this end. After an examination of every strain of vac | cine upon the market it is stated that | there is now upon the market no vac | cine contaminated with the virus of | foot -and-mouth disease "ReguIations have been formulated | with view to preventing hereafter cine virus. No instance of the trans | missison of foot-and-mouth disease to | man through vaccine virus has been recorded. and it is considered doubt | full, in view of the tests made. if it is possible to reproduce the disease in l him by the cutaneous inoculation com monly used in the process of vaccina- ton.
 ''The recent outbreak of foot-and- | mouth disease in live stock has been | eradicated after vigorous work by the l Bureau of Animal Industry in CO., | operation with State authorities. in volving the expenditure of S30o,0O by | the Federal Government alone. | "The quarantine on the last of the | infected territory was removed April 1 24'