History. It is difficult or impossible to identify this disease among the various animal plagues in ancient times. Yet when lesions are given it may be admitted in different cases. Aristotle, writing 350 years before Christ says “the cattle that live in herds are subject to a malady which causes the breathing to become hot and frequent. The ears droop and they cannot eat. They die rapidly and the lungs are found spoiled.” Here the facts that cattle alone suffered, that large herds suffered most, that the lungs were the seat of very marked lesions, and that fever and mortality were both marked, point forcibly toward lung plague. Valentini’s description of a fatal lung disease in cattle also stands out prominently in the obscure records. The first full and definite report is that given by Bourgelat of its prevalence in Franche-Compté in 1769. Later the records are frequent and from all over Europe, indicating its general prevalence before as well as after Bourgelat.
Much more important are its definite extensions into new countries after a long interval of immunity as showing that with trustworthy records such invasions can always be satisfactorily accounted for by the introduction of cattle or their fresh products from a previously infected area. Into Holland it was imported from Germany in 1835 by Vanderbosch a Guelderland distiller and spread over the whole country. Attempts were made in Friesland, and at first successfully, to stamp it out by slaughter and disinfection, but the demands of the trade toward England grew so enormously that it was being constantly introduced anew and the measure was abandoned. The British Consul at the Hague, in 1839 sent some Dutch cows to a friend in County Cork, Ireland, which led to the general infection of that island and indirectly of Great Britain. In 1842, under the Free Trade Act, England became at once deluged with lung plague cattle from Holland, Belgium and France on the one side, and Ireland on the other. Soon the whole island had been infected except exclusively breeding districts (Welsh and Scottish Highlands, etc.) into which no cattle were ever introduced from outside.
In 1847 an importation of English cattle into Sweden conveyed the disease, where it prevailed for some time and even infected Denmark through shipments of cattle, but was finally extirpated by the pole axe and disinfectants.
In 1860, Norway imported infected Ayrshire cattle for the Royal Agricultural College at Aas, but the imported and exposed stock were promptly destroyed and the previous immunity of the country has been maintained up to the present.
Denmark was infected in 1848 by importation from Sweden, and on different other occasions from Germany and England, but by prompt and rigid suppressive measures, stamped out the disease on each occasion. This was true also of Schleswig so long as it remained a part of Denmark, but the infection entered in the commisariat parks of the German army in 1864, and the principality remaining in German hands, the lung plague became permanently established.
Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Oldenburg also maintained vigorous suppressive measures and for long kept clear of the infection.
Into Brooklyn, lung plague was introduced in 1843 through the purchase of an English ship cow by a dairyman (Peter Dunn). From this centre the infection spread until it prevailed in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
In 1879, measures were taken in New York and New Jersey to extirpate the disease but failed to receive the requisite continued support and were practically abandoned. It was only in 1887 when the infection had reached Chicago, the largest cattle market in the world, that the National and State Governments were aroused to the gravity of the danger, and, the Federal Government supplying the funds and the Illinois Government the authority, the beginning of a real attempt at extinction was seriously undertaken. The author acted as chief of the national veterinary force in Illinois in 1887, and takes great pleasure in recording that at the end of three months from the date of his arrival, the last acute case of the disease had been disposed of and the frightful danger that had threatened the nation through the Chicago stock yards had been removed. The supervision was maintained for a year later, and some old sequestra were later found in the lungs of cattle slaughtered, but no acute nor dangerous cases of the disease. This was followed by vigorous suppressive work in other infected states and by September, 1892, the quarantine was raised and the nation pronounced free from lung plague. The last cases were met with in New Jersey, early in 1892. In this last anti-lung-plague crusade the National Government inspected 1,605,721 cattle in 166,951 herds, made 356,404 necropsies, purchased 21,961 head of cattle, and disinfected 4,128 premises. 7,438 cattle were found affected at the necropsy.
Another line of infection was started by 4 Dutch cows, landed at Boston in 1859, and before the end of the year the infection had extended into 20 different townships in Mass. In 1860, a State Commission was created, with Dr. E. F. Thayer as veterinary commissioner, and in the next few years they destroyed 1,164 cattle, and stamped out the plague at a total cost of $77,511.07.
An importation of infected cattle into New Jersey was made in 1847, by Mr. Richardson, who on discovering the nature of the disease, made an end of that particular contagious centre, by slaughtering his whole herd at a cost of $10,000.