"Anyhow, thanks chiefly to new veterinary surgeons who do send reports, we see that in the twelve years, up to 1st January of this year, we have had exact returns as to 1,788,879 sheep and 200,962 cattle—about half of all those that were vaccinated.
"The mortality among sheep and cattle is slightly higher after the first vaccination than after the second. This fact seems to us easy to explain. The animals reported dead include both those that died as the result of the vaccinations, and those that, being already infected at the time, died of the actual disease. But, at the time of second vaccination, the animals are already more or less protected: hence a lower mortality from the actual disease, and a lower sum total.
"The whole loss of sheep is about 1 per cent.: the average for the twelve years is 0.94. So we may say that the whole average loss of vaccinated sheep, whether from vaccination or from the disease itself is about 1 per cent. The loss of vaccinated cattle is still less: for the period of twelve years, it is 0.34, or about 1/3 per cent.
"These results are extremely satisfactory. It is to be noted especially that the average annual death-rate from charbon, before vaccination—the average given in these reports—is estimated at 10 per cent. among sheep, and 5 per cent. among cattle. But even if we put it at 6 per cent. for sheep, and 3-1/3 per cent. for cattle, and say that the worth of a sheep is 30 francs, and of an ox or a cow 150 francs—which is well below their real value—even then it is obvious that the advantage of these vaccinations to French agriculture is about five million francs in sheep, and two million in cattle. And these figures are rather too low than too high.
2. Rouget
"Some years after the discovery of vaccination against charbon, M. Pasteur discovered the vaccine for a disease of swine known under the name of rouget. From 1886, these vaccines were prepared and sent out under the same conditions as the vaccines against charbon. The following table gives the reports that have come to us of this disease:[17] —
Vaccination against Rouget (France).
| Years. | Total Number of Animals Vaccinated. | Number of Reports. | Animals Vaccinated according to Reports received. | Mortality. | Total. | Total loss per 100. | Average loss before Vacci- nation. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| After First Vacci- nation. | After Second Vacci- nation. | During the rest of the Year. | ||||||||
| { | ||||||||||
| For these two years | ||||||||||
| 1886 | France | 49 | 7,087 | 91 | 24 | 56 | 171 | 2.41 | 20% | |
| and other countries | ||||||||||
| 1887 | are put | 49 | 7,467 | 57 | 10 | 23 | 90 | 1.21 | " | |
| together. | ||||||||||
| 1888 | 15,958 | 31 | 6,968 | 31 | 25 | 38 | 94 | 1.35 | " | |
| 1889 | 19,338 | 41 | 11,257 | 92 | 12 | 40 | 144 | 1.28 | " | |
| 1890 | 17,658 | 41 | 14,992 | 118 | 64 | 73 | 254 | 1.70 | " | |
| 1891 | 20,583 | 47 | 17,556 | 102 | 34 | 70 | 206 | 1.17 | " | |
| 1892 | 37,900 | 38 | 10,128 | 43 | 19 | 46 | 108 | 1.07 | " | |
| Total | 111,437 | 296 | 75,455 | 534 | 188 | 345 | 1,067 | 1.45 | 20% | |
"The total average of losses during the past seven years is 1.45 per cent., or about 1-1/2 per cent.
"This average is appreciably higher than the average for charbon. But it must be noted that the mortality from rouget among swine, before vaccination, was much higher than that from charbon among sheep. It was about 20 per cent.; a certain number of reports speak of losses of 60 and even 80 per cent.: so that almost all the veterinary surgeons are loud in their praises of the new vaccination."