ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF LIVE STOCK COMMISSIONERS, FOR THE STATE OF ILLINOIS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 31, A. D. 1887. ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE BOARD OF LIVE STOCK COMMISSIONERS, FOR THE YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 31, 1887. To His Excellency, RICHARD J. OGLESBY, GOVERNOR: SIR-In submitting this second annual report, we desire to say, that in order to make the date thereof conform to those generally submitted by the various official boards, we have brought down the date to October 31, 1887, the record, therefore, including sixteen months of service, and the expenditures are given for the same time. A special or supplemental report was made December 17, 1886, relative to the work done, and necessary to be done, in extirpating contagious pleuro-pneumonia in Cook county. The Board was also called upon, by resolutions of the General Assembly, for later information on the same subject, which was promptly given, and copies of the same are herewith submitted in the appendix. We also made certificates, as required by law, to you, from time to time, of the amount of damages allowed to various parties, for the slaughter of their cattle. A tabulated statement of these amounts, showing the number of cattle slaughtered, and the number diseased, and a statement of all the expenditures made by the Board under the law, accompanies this report. The appropriation for the expenses of the Board, and for the services of the Veterinarians, made in 1885, was exhausted in December, 1886, but the General Assembly, with intelligent, appreciation of the necessity of the case, promptly passed an emergency bill, placing at our disposal $15,000 to carry on the work of inspection and quarantine, and to pay the expenses of the Board in its general work until another appropriation would be available, and also appropriated the sum of $35,398.78, which we had previously paid into the State Treasury, from the proceeds of the carcasses of cattle pronounced healthy upon post-mortem examinination, and sold by us, to be applied in payment for damages arising from the slaughter of cattle, the previous appropriation made for this purpose having been nearly exhausted. We at once employed more men, and skilled Veterinarians, and pushed the work of quarantining all the cattle within the infected area, as rapidly as possible, until the work was completed. The General Assembly had, in the meantime, at our suggestion, greatly amended the law, and thereby increased our efficiency, yet, when Spring arrived and grass began to grow, we found no little difficulty in enforcing our quarantine. Persons whose cattle were apparently healthy, refused to keep them in close stables, while free grass was all around them. They preferred to take the chance of exposure, and save the cost of feed. To remedy this, and render more effective the quarantine restrictions, we deemed it advisable to ask another amendment to our law. After due investigation, by a joint committee of the General Assembly, and personal examinations of diseased animals, and the methods employed by the Board, and on the recommendation of said joint committee, this last amendment was made without opposition. We regard this amendment as most helpful, and in such a large city as Chicago, absolutely necessary. It enables Your Excellency, by proclamation, to quarantine any given district, prohibiting the movement of any animal into or out of said district or from one premises to another within the district, without a permit granted by the Board or an authorized agent thereof, thus accomplishing at once a great saving of time and money. Under the old law, with fifty men employed, the city of Chicago and its suburbs could not be quarantined in less than thirty days, incurring an expense of more than six thousand dollars, nor could the work be done so well. Immediately upon the last amendment becoming a law, we, pursuant to its provisions, scheduled to you the infected district, and represented to you the necessity for the quarantine of the same by proclamation, whereupon you issued such proclamation on July 9, 1887, a copy of which is appended, and thereafter but little difficulty was found in enforcing the quarantine regulations. We now proceed to report in detail the work done since our last annual report. DISEASES OF CATTLE. PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. To enable us to make a complete and full statement of the outbreak and suppression of contagious pleuro-pneumonia in Cook county, we deem it proper to incorporate in this report extracts from our supplementary report on that subject made on December 17, 1886, as introductory to this report. Recapitulation. On the 12th day of September, 1886, Dr. John Casewell, State Veterinarian, after careful examination, killed a heifer on the premises of John Carne, Jr., at Ridgeland, Cook county. Post |