Texas Fever and Anthrax in Cattle
MR. A. S. MERCER, editor of the Northwestern Live Stock Journal and agent of the Bureau of Animal Industries of the United States, has recently visited the Salinas Valley, this State, in an official capacity, and reports that at the time of his visit large numbers of horses and cattle were dying in Monterey County of Texas fever, anthrax, and other diseases. The germs of anthrax cannot be killed by burial, but the carcasses of its victims must be burned to exterminate them. The disease is so very contagious that persons engaged in butchering become infected and die. In Gonzales the Spaniards have been taking the beef killed by the disease, jerking or drying it, and selling it in the Salinas market, from whence it is shipped to San Francisco. The Board of Health appointed Dr. Barrows, a veterinary expert from Washington, with two assistants to subject every animal butchered for the San Francisco market to critical inspection.