Excerpt from Foot-Rot of Sheep: Its Nature, Cause, and Treatment

The farmers of Maryland and Virginia were taking an increasing interest at this time in improved sheep. They had many discouraging conditions to contend with, and, although it is possible that foot-rot was not known among their flocks at this time, it is certain that much trouble was caused by the appearance of diseases, dogs, and wolves, and that contagious foot-rot made itself known and feared as early as 1832 in these States.

Owing to the imperfect knowledge at that time of matters pertain ing to bacterial diseases, the sheep owners struggled against the spread of foot-rot in their flocks somewhat unsuccessfully, and it often required constant watchfulness and persistent treatment for three or four years to eradicate the disease after it had become thoroughly established upon the premises of the sheep grower.

Later than this, _in the late fifties and early sixties, there was a marked revival of interest in sheep raising throughout the Middle West, and at this time many who had previously devoted their energies exclusively to grain or to cattle and hogs concluded to change over to sheep, and the resulting traffic in these animals caused them to be moved about over the country roads and into new sections of the agri cultural regions in numbers never before equaled. In several instances these traveling flocks carried foot-rot with them and infected the flocks with which they came in contact along their routes. The States of Ohio, Michigan (southern), Illinois, and Iowa were most seriously infected, and in all of them the disease secured such firm foothold that several years of strenuous combat were necessary before it was even partially subdued. It was during this period that a sheep raiser of long practical experience, in writing from his home State (ohio) made the statement that farmers in his part of the country had in times past been seriously troubled by the appearance of stubborn outbreaks of foot-rot among their flocks of sheep. In no case, however, had he been able to discover the spontaneous appearance of the disease, but with a little persistent inquiry it had been an easy task to trace the origin of each outbreak to the careless handling of diseased sheep brought from other localities. Since that time the disease has appeared frequently, but its spread has never assumed such alarming propor tions, and, owing to a better understanding of the disease, it has been more successfully controlled.

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