Report of the Foot-And- Mouth -Disease Commission of the United States Department

TECHNICAL BULLETIN NO. 76 JUNE, 1928 REPORT OF THE FOOT-AND- MOUTH -DISEASE COMMISSION OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT... n A OF AGRICULTURE : Í; BY Á- J'JN ??G 192 PETER K. OLITSKY Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research JACOB TRAUM i - Associate^Professor of Veterinary Science, University oftJal^^rma and HARRY W. SCHOENING Associate Veterinarian, Bureau of Animal Industry United States Department of Agriculture UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, D. C. U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1928 CONTENTS Page Page Introduction 1 Experimental studies—Continued. Epizoology and control of epizootics __ 3 Cross-immunity tests in cattle, swine, and Characteristics of foot-and-mouth disease. 3 guinea pigs 76 The incitant or causative agent 4 Cattle 76 Characteristics of the incitant 4 Swine 79 Physical properties 6 Guinea pigs 80 Chemical properties 6 Plurality of viruses determined by serum Chemical disinfectants in practice 7 tests 82 Mode of spread 7 Typing viruses 83 Diseased animals and carriers 7 Swiss sample 83 Cattle products .__ 8 Other Strasbourg samples 84 Biological products 9 Danish and Swedish samples 84 Spread by man _ 9 Danish samples 85 Transmission by intermediate hosts. 10 Swedish samples 86 Difíerential diagnosis. 11 Immunity.—Immune and hyperimmune Eelation of immunity to epizoology 12 serum 86 Duration 12 Serum tests in guinea pigs 86 Plurality of virus 12 Experimental technic 87 Local and humoral immunity 12 Action of hyperimmune serum in Active immunity 13 cattle 94 Passive immunity 14 Immunity following injections of im- Control measures.. 15 mune serum and virus in guinea C ontrol measures in E urope 16 pigs . 97 Control measures in the United Attempt at immunization with avir- ulent blood 98 States _ 30 Complement-fixation tests 98 Experimental studies... 33 Period of infectiousness in cattle and in Physical and chemical properties of the hogs 100 virus 33 Survival of the virus outside the animal. _ 106 Strain of virus employed 33 Carriers of foot-and-mouth disease 107 Freedom from ordinary bacteria 34 Foot-and-mouth disease in the horse 115 The disease in the guinea pig 34 Comparative studies on vesicular stoma- Method of injection ._. 34 titis and foot-and-mouth disease 117 Secondary lesions 35 Experimental vesicular stomatitis in Period of incubation 35 guinea pigs 118 Time of greatest infectivity 36 Cross-immunity tests of vesicular Mortality 36 stomatitis and foot-and-mouth dis- Transfer to cattle 36 ease in guinea pigs _ 119 Titration of the virus... 36 Experimental vesicular stomatitis in Centrifugation of the virus 38 cattle 122 Summary. __ 39 Immunity in cattle following expo- Cataphoresis and filtration.._ _ 40 sure to vesicular-stomatitis virus. _ 123 Cataphoresis __ 40 Cross-immunity tests of vesicular Filtration. 42 stomatitis and foot-and-mouth dis- Resistance of the virus to chemicals _ 49 ease in cattle 124 Virucidal chemicals 55 Experimental vesicular stomatitis in Summary 60 swine 127 Cross-immunity tests of vesicular Experiments on cultivation... 60 stomatitis and foot-and-mouth dis- Optimum hydrogen-ion concentra- ease in swine 129 tion 62 Experimental vesicular stomatitis in Temperature _ __ 63 horses ___ 130 Oxygen tension __ 63 Filtration experiments 130 Influence of different media 64 Discussion 133 Miscellaneous experiments 69 Conclusions 136 Bespiration of the virus._ 69 Regulations for the control of foot-and-mouth Intradermic reactions 70 disease in European countries 137 Earthworms as carriers 71 Belgium 138 Survival of the virus in earth 71 Denmark 142 The particulate and living character of France 150 the virus.. 71 Germany.. 152 Summary of physical and chemical prop- Sweden 156 erties 73 Switzerland _ 157 The Netherlands 161 Plurality of types of foot-and-mouth- United Kingdom 163 disease virus 75 Literature cited 168 TECHNICAL BULLETIN NO. 76 ^^"^^^^^^^T^ JUNE, 1928 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON, D. C. REPORT OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH-DISEASE COMMISSION OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE By PETER K. OLITSKY, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, JACOB TRAUM, Associate Professor of Veterinary Science, University of California, and HARRY W. ScHOENiNG, Associate Veterinarian, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Depart?nent of Agriculture With an introduction by JOHN R. MOHLER, Chief, Bureau of Animal Industry INTRODUCTION Public sentiment in the United States has recognized for many years the necessity for aggressive measures in deahng with foot-and- mouth disease, which is one of the most contagious animal diseases known. Outbreaks of this malady occurred in the United States in 1870, 1880, 1884, 1902, 1908, 1914, and 1924, but with the excep- tion of that of 1914 they were of relatively short duration and were limited to small areas. Slaughtering infected and exposed animals promptly, and burying or burning their carcasses, have been the chief means of eradication. This drastic method, together with the exercise of vigilance to prevent the introduction of the disease into the country, has entailed considerable hardship and expense to stock owners and to the State and Federal Governments. Nevertheless, it has been the necessary price paid for the protection of our domestic animals, and while large in the aggregate, it is very small compared to the losses that would inevitably occur should the scourge at any time be allowed to get beyond control. Foot-and-mouth disease has been recognized for centuries, but until comparatively recent years exact knowledge concerning the virus and certain aspects of the disease has been wanting. Exten- sive studies have been conducted in countries where foot-and-mouth disease is enzootic and the United States is deeply indebted to the scientists of those countries for their valuable contributions to our knowledge concerning this malady. On account of the danger of the virus escaping and starting new outbreaks, the scientists of the United States have not engaged regularly in its investigation. How- ever, some observations and researches have been made in connection with outbreaks in the United States which have been outstanding. For instance, the 1908 outbreak was traced to contaminated small- pox vaccine imported from a foreign country several years preceding its use. This investigation proved that symbiosis existed with the infections of vaccinia and foot-and-mouth disease. Animals vacci- nated with the mixed virus, as a rule, showed only lesions of one of 92678°—28 1 ¿ TECHNICAL BULLETIN 76, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE these diseases, namely, vaccinia; nevertheless the infectious principle of foot-and-mouth disease remained in the vaccinal eruption. In another instance the disease was carried from a serum-producing plant to five States through contaminated anti-hog-cholera serum collected from hogs which showed no symptoms or lesions of the disease at the time they were slaughtered and their blood collected. Proof of this contamination was not obtained until the sixtj^-second animal was injected in the fifth series of tests. In the 1914 outbreak an outstanding investigation was conducted on a group of 740 recovered cases of foot-and-mouth disease in order to determine the pres- ence or absence of any disseminators of the virus (virus carriers) among the survivors. Such carriers have been known to persist in certain recovered cases of typhoid fever and diphtheria of man. However, in this particular group of recovered foot-and-mouth disease cases no virus carriers were found after numerous prolonged and carefully conducted tests had been made. The initial outbreak in California in 1924 was traced to garbage con- taining contaminated meat scraps from carcasses which had been pur- chased in a foreign country where the disease existed. In conducting tests of premises with live animals preparatory to restocking it was established that the virus of foot-and-mouth disease, under favorable conditions, will remain virulent for a long time. In one instance, as clear-cut as if conducted and controlled under laboratory conditions, test animals became infected when they were placed on quarantined premises, although 345 days had elapsed following the slaughter of the originally infected herd and the disinfection of the barn and other buildings. The eradication of the disease among the deer in the Stanislaus National Forest, Calif., requiring the destruction of thou- sands of these creatures, involved considerable investigation before definite plans could be developed, since never before in anj^ country had an attempt been made to eradicate this disease among deer or other wild animals. While its scientists have not been regularly engaged in research work of foot-and-mouth disease, the Bureau of Animal Industry has kept in close touch with what was being done in various parts of the world. In order to obtain further scientific knowledge concernmg this highly infectious disease—and to do so without danger to the country's extensive livestock industry—the United States Department of Agriculture proposed to Congress the appointment of a commission for studying foot-and-mouth disease in European countries where it is constantly present and where suitable experiments could be conducted. By a special act Congress authorized the appointment of such a commission and empowered it to conduct studies of foot-and- mouth disease abroad with the hope of obtaining information that might be used in suppressing most eft'ectively any outbreaks of the malady that may later occur in the United States. The commission appointed consisted of Peter K. Olitsky, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research; Jacob Traum, of the University of California; and Harry W. Schoening, of the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture. These trained investigators went to Europe in May, 1925, visiting 11 countries, namely, France, Germany, England, Denmark, Sweden, The Notlierlands; Belgium, Switzerland, Austria^ Hungary^ and Italy. REPORT OP THE FOOT-AND-MOUTH-DISEASE COMMISBIOX 3 Officials in the countries visited welcomed the American commission and gave valuable assistance, for which acknowledgment is made.

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