It is very advisable to give a protective serum to horses that are shipped
or transported long distances, and exposed to the disease in sale or
transfer stables.

GLANDERS, FARCY.--This is a contagious and infectious disease of solipeds
that is characterized by the formation of nodules and ulcers on the skin,
nasal mucous membrane and lungs.

Although glanders is one of the oldest of animal diseases, it was not until
1868 that its contagious character was demonstrated. The disease is widely
distributed. It became more prevalent in the United States after the Civil
War. The vigorous control measures practised by the State and Federal
health officers have greatly decreased the percentage of animals affected
with glanders. At the present time the disease is more often met with in
the large cities than in the agricultural sections of the country.

[Illustration: FIG. 114.--_Bacillus mallei_.]

_The specific cause of glanders is the Bacillus mallei_ (Fig. 114). This
microorganism was discovered in 1882. It is present in the discharges from
the nasal mucous membrane and the ulcers. These discharges may become
deposited upon the feed troughs, mangers, stalls, harness, buckets,
watering troughs, drinking fountains and attendants' hands and clothing.
Healthy horses living in the same stable with the glandered animals may
escape infection for months. It is usually the diseased animal's mate, or
the one standing in an adjoining stall, that is first affected. Catarrhal
diseases predispose animals to glanders, as the normal resistance of the
mucous membranes is thereby reduced. The most common routes by which the
germ enters the body are by way of the digestive and respiratory tracts. It