request for the sum of $24,500,000, additional, to build a research laboratory at Prudence Island, off the coast of Rhode Island.

We will insert at this time pages, 1, 2, 3, and 19 from the justifications.

(The statements referred to follow :)

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION, BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY

RESEARCH FACILITIES, 1951

(H. Doc. 640)

Appropriation to date, Second Deficiency Appropriation Act, 1949––

$500,000

132,000

130,000

24, 500, 000

Foot-and-mouth disease is a constant threat to the livestock industry of the United States since it exists in most countries of the world. Vigilent enforcement of laws and regulations designed to protect the United States against invasion by this disease has been an excellent defense, although on six occasions since 1900, the disease has been introduced into the country. These outbreaks have been successfully dealt with by slaughter of infected and exposed animals. Since 1947 the Department has been engaged in a cooperative project with the Government of Mexico to eradicate the disease there. The presence of footand-mouth disease in Mexico has presented a particular threat to the livestock industry because land barriers are not effective against its spread. Congress has recognized the serious economic consequences which might result from an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the country from any source, and in the Act of April 24, 1948 (21 U. S. C., Supp. III, 113a) authorized the establishment of facilities for conducting research on the disease.

Pursuant to this authority, the Second deficiency Appropriation Act, 1949 (Public Law 119), appropriated $500,000 for plans and specifications and for acquiring options on a recommended site for the proposed facilities. The appropriation act specified that the total cost of such facilities should not exceed $25,000,000 and required that the construction proposals be submitted to the congressional appropriations committees, together with detailed information as to the estimated costs and the site proposed to be selected.

Prudence Island, R. I., in Narragansett Bay, is recommended as the site. Options on land on the island have been acquired, and tentative building plans and cost estimates prepared. Since one of the options will expire August 5, 1950, this estimate in the amount of $24,500,000 is submitted to permit early consideration by Congress.

EXPLANATION OF LANGUAGE

The language provides additional funds to acquire land and to provide research facilities thereon in order that investigations of foot-and-mouth disease may be undertaken pursuant to basic authority in the act of April 24, 1948, and within the limitation of $25,000,000 established by the Second Deficiency Appropriation Act, 1949.

About 500 acres of land will be required for this project.—A number of sites have been thoroughly studied on the basis of the 10 requirements set forth in Senate Document No. 211, Eightieth Congress, and the requirement prescribed by the act of April 24, 1948, that the island selected shall not be connected by a tunnel with the mainland. Prudence Island, in Narragansett Bay, R. I., has

been selected as the preferred site for location of the proposed facilities. Tracts of land involved are as follows:

450 acres on Prudence Island (option price). 26 acres on Prudence Island (option price) 16 lots on Prudence Island (option price).

Value of land $17,000

7,650

Site on mainland for rail connections and loading docks and small additional acreage on island needed to complete tract for laboratory facilities (estimated cost).

Total_____.

8, 900

57,000

90, 550

The options obtainable provide for exercise of purchase rights within a period of 90 days and expire on varying dates beginning August 5, 1950. In addition to the purchase price of land, it would be necessary to incur additional expenses for appraisals, site surveys, and so forth, which would make total cost of land about $93,000.

The total estimate for the research facilities includes the following items:

It is estimated that the final working drawings and full engineering details will be completed in the fiscal year 1951, and that the facilities would be available for full-scale operation in the fiscal year 1954. Tentative cash requirements under this estimate by fiscal years are as follows:

The estimate provides for research facilities for a full-scale attack on the many problems connected with foot-and-mouth disease, including fundamental research on the virus itself, a study of the modes of transmission, a search for more accurate and improved methods of diagnosis than now available, and the development of improved vaccines and more efficient methods of disinfection, all aimed at strengthening the defenses of the United States against this animal plague. In order to engage in research on a disease so contagious, the laboratory must contain many special safety measures to provide external security to the livestock industry and to provide complete internal control for prevention of cross-infections in experimental work.

In oder to reach a solution to the many complicated problems involved in this disease it will be necessary to carry on controlled research on a much broader scale than ever before conducted in other large-animal disease research in this country or abroad. The nature of the research program necessitates the use of large numbers of cattle and other animals under complete research control.

Some experiments, such as those on duration of immunity and the potentialities of carrier animals, would extend over long periods. A vigorous research attack on foot-and-mouth disease requires sufficient animals for carrying on a number of experiments simultaneously and sufficient numbers in each experiment to obtain significant results.

Dr. SIMMS. Mr. Chairman, we are glad to have this opportunity to discuss this matter with you.

We have prepared a statement that gives a good bit of the material. I would like to add to it somewhat. I would like to give you, if it meets with your approval, the background for the request for the laboratory for working with foot-and-mouth disease.

As you people all know, we do not have this disease in our own country, but it is one that threatens our livestock industry constantly because of its presence in practically all parts of the world, with the exception of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and a few other areas.

I think the first decision to be made by your committee is whether or not we shall do research work with foot-and-mouth disease on a fairly large scale. As you know, it has always been the policy of the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Animal Industry not to work with this disease in this country. That policy has been followed down through the years, and I think it is a very sound one, and one that we should continue to follow if conditions as they have existed in the past continue to exist. That is to say, we should do no research work with foot-and-mouth disease in this country unless we have special facilities for doing that work, because it would be too dangerous to be studied in the laboratories that we now have.

SOURCE AND SPREAD OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE

Mr. WHITTEN. How is the disease spread, Dr. Simms? Dr. SIMMS. The disease is caused by a virus which lives in the body of the infected animal. It is present in large amounts in the saliva of an animal at the time it has the disease. The virus is also present in large amounts in the blisters or vesicles which develop between the toes. We know that animals coming in contact with an infected animal, or coming in contact with infected premises, contract it.

Mr. WHITTEN. Has the virus been isolated, separated?

Dr. SIMMS. It is too small to be seen with the ordinary microscrope, but we know a considerable amount about it. We know, for instance, it will pass through a filter that will remove ordinary bacteria. We know that the diseased animal——

Mr. WHITTEN. You know some ways it is spread?

Dr. SIMMS. We do.

Mr. WHITTEN. Do you know all the ways it is spread?

Dr. SIMMS. No; we do not. We know it can be transmitted to another animal by eating the infected material. We do not know how far it can be spread. We do not know how long it will live on the hands or feet of a person, for instance, who comes in contact with it. We do not know, if a man gets on an airplane in Europe, in Switzerland, or some other area where they have foot-and-mouth disease, how long the virus may remain with him, provided, of course, he is carrying it.

As I say, during the past years, there has been no work on the disease in this country with the facilities we have had. That is why we think you should want to decide first whether such work should be done in this country.

The reaction to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease follows a regular pattern. We saw that pattern when the disease broke out in Mexico. The livestock industry is afraid of the disease, and when the disease breaks out people become hysterical. And, you remember 3 years ago, or a little over 3 years ago, when the disease broke out in Mexico, how people here—our livestock people were very sure that we were facing disaster, and they came to us and demanded that something be done.

During 1924 and 1925, I was in California, and at that time I heard many of our livestock people and veterinarians ask why the Department of Agriculture had not been working on this disease.

When this outbreak occurred in Mexico, we had protests from the same people, from the veterinarians and from the livestock industry, from the cattle associations and the livestock producers, asking why the Department of Agriculture had not been working on it.

After the disease is brought under control this hysteria disappears; people more or less lose their interest, as they did in 1924 and 1929; and, yet, with the next outbreak we meet with much the same hysteria

RESEARCH WORK IN EUROPE

Following the 1924-25 outbreak we did send a group to Europe to study in the foot-and-mouth disease laboratories over there, and they turned up with some very good information.

Mr. WHITTEN. Dr. Simms, how long has France been studying this disease, and Switzerland?

Dr. SIMMS. France?

Mr. WHITTEN. And other countries?

Dr. SIMMS. France has had some study under way on foot-andmouth disease for at least 50 years or more.

SWAMP-FEVER STUDY

Mr. WHITTPN. And our own organizations have been studying swamp fever for about 30 years?

Dr. SIMMS. We have been studying swamp fever longer than that. Mr. WHITTEN. And we still have swamp fever?

Dr. SIMMS. That is right.

Mr. WHITTEN. And we still do not know too much about it. The fact is that eradication is what you resort to now for foot-and-mouth disease?

Dr. SIMMS. Where foot-and-mouth disease shows up

Mr. WHITTEN. In other words, up to this point what is done is the eradication of the animal; you have not found a cure?

Dr. SIMMS. We have not found a cure for the disease, and I would be very much surprised if anybody does find a cure for the disease.

RESULTS OF VACCINATION AS CONTROL MEASURE

Mr. WHITTEN. You have had some rather fine success-have you not?-in your vaccinating measures.

Dr. SIMMS. Vaccines have given good results. They have been used in Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, and Germany. We have made, world-wide, a lot of progress in the control of foot-and-mouth disease in the last 15 years.

Mr. WHITTEN. Are there any questions?

Mr. ANDERSEN. When you say you have obtained good results, as far as vaccine is concerned, you do not mean, by that, that it eliminates the disease?

Dr. SIMMS. Oh, no.

Mr. ANDERSEN. Are you creating some immunity down in Mexico? Dr. SIMMS. Yes.

Mr. ANDERSEN. Through the use of two or three vaccinations?

Dr. SIMMS. We get good resistance that lasts about 4 months. Then the reistance begins to disappear.

Mr. ANDERSEN. In other words, it seems that you will have to continue to do something from now on in order to hold it within the border where it is; is that right?

Dr. SIMMS. The program in Mexico, in the first place, was to destroy every infected animal, and we followed that program right straight through

Mr. ANDERSEN. Yes; I know. I was down there some 2 years ago. Of course, I know you were hampered some in the control down there? Dr. SIMMS. Yes.

Mr. ANDERSEN. You were up against certain insurmountable problems that is, it was very difficult for you to do some work in some places-but what I am trying to arrive at in my own mind is what has been accomplished by this vaccination program?

Dr. SIMS. In Mexico?

Mr. ANDERSEN. Yes.

Dr. SIMMS. We have built up in those animals resistance in the area where the disease was present. In December the disease occurred in a village in an area where the cattle had been vaccinated. The disease did not spread beyond the confines of that particular village.

We do not get complete immunity, but it does not spread rapidly; the vaccine has helped a great deal.