The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1914-12-24
FOOT and MOUTH
DISEASE DESCRIBED

The story of the closing of the
Union Stockyards in Chicago for ten
days from November 5 to November
16 is not only story illustrating the
conta gious characteristic of foot and
mouth disease, but will serve to show
the typical methods used by the Fed
eral government and the infected
states for suppression
The Union Yards have an area OF
five hundred acres, three hundred
miles of railroad track, thirteen thou
sand pens and a daily capacity of sew.
enty-fve thousand cattle, three hun
dred thousand hogs, one hundred and
twenty-five thousand sheep and six
thousand horses. The average daily
receipts of cattle there are valued at
more than million dollars.
The American and English method
of uppression-thato of slaughter and
disinfection-was put into effect In
the many states toswhich the disease
had spread from the Chicago center
and in the Chicago yards, which had
been closed.
Nine hundred cattle were slaughter
ed at the Union Stockyards alone. A
steam shovel in transit was halted
and dug a great grave-wide and deep
The dead animals were dumped in,
covered with lime and burned. For
the first time in the half century of
the yards history the pens were clear
ed;not a hoof stood within the five
hundred acres. For ten days this con-
tinued. Uuder government supervls-
ion the disinfecting began. 1t cost in
labor, materials and loss of business
to the yards, shippers and consignees,
probably over a quarter of million
dollars. Thecost of the WORK was es-
timated at over sixty thousand dol
lars. The water system Of the yards
was converted into conduit system
for hyper-chloride of lime, and TWEEN
ty-fve thousand dollars worth of this
disinfectant was used in washing out
the ems. Following this bath, creso]
was sjrayed over and in the yards,
pens, hog and sheep houses, by pres.
sure from the air. compressor plant
Roofs, floors, ceilings, were wet
down; lime was spread upon the
floors of all passagsways. It took a
force of nearly eighteen hundred men
nine days to do the work, and at last
on November 16 the yards were open
for business again, subject to the
order that no live cattle should be
shipped out.
England required nearly fifty years
to rid herself of this plague. The las
epizootic form of the foot and mouth
disease on the continent came from
Russia in 1886. Four years later sta
tistics collected in the German Empir,
showed that nearly half million heat
of cattle, more than quarter-milliol
| of sheep and goats, and more than
| sixth of million of swine were vic
Tins of the disease In 1871 the infec
ton cost France over seven million
in 1883 England stood loss of fiv
million dollars. The greatest losses
it must be remembered, are not il
animal mortality, but in loss of weigh
diminished milk supply, aborted pres
nency and permanent after effects RI
naming when the active disease il
self has gone.
i DR.. Cope, of the British Board {
Agriculture, said at the Internations
Congress of Veterinary Surgeons 9
Baden-Baden: 1T is true that the foe
and mouth disease rarely assumes
fatal character, but the fact that nea
ly all classes of animals on the farm
are susceptible renders the indire,
losses much greater in the case {