Over sixty percent of all infectious human diseases, including tuberculosis, influenza, cholera, and hundreds more, are shared with other vertebrate animals. Arresting Contagion tells the story of how early efforts to combat livestock infections turned the United States from a disease-prone nation into a world leader in controlling communicable diseases. Alan Olmstead and Paul Rhode show that many innovations devised in the fight against animal diseases, ranging from border control and food inspection to drug regulations and the creation of federal research labs, provided the foundation for modern food safety programs and remain at the heart of U.S. public health policy.
America’s first concerted effort to control livestock diseases dates to the founding of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) in 1884. Because the BAI represented a milestone in federal regulation of commerce and industry, the agency encountered major jurisdictional and constitutional obstacles. Nevertheless, it proved effective in halting the spread of diseases, counting among its early breakthroughs the discovery of Salmonella and advances in the understanding of vector-borne diseases.
By the 1940s, government policies had eliminated several major animal diseases, saving hundreds of thousands of lives and establishing a model for eradication that would be used around the world. Although scientific advances played a key role, government interventions did as well. Today, a dominant economic ideology frowns on government regulation of the economy, but the authors argue that in this case it was an essential force for good.

List of Figures and Tables ix

1 An Enduring Struggle 1

2 Livestock Disease Environment and Industry Dyna mics 19

3 The Battle to Create the Bu reau of Ani mal Industry 42

4 The BAl in Action: Establishing the Area Eradication Model 63

5 Bad Blood: Deciphering Texas Fever and Confining It's Spread 94

6 Contagions and Crises: Foot-and-Mouth Disease 115

7 The Hog Cholera Puzzle : Controversy and Discovery 138

8 Trichinosis, Trade, and Food Safety 156

9 The Benevolence of the Butcher: The Creation of Federal Meat Inspection 172

10 Bovine Tuberculosis and the Milk Problem 219

11 The Eradication of Texas Fever: Conflict and Cooperation 251

12 An Impossible Undertaking: Eradicating Bovine Tuberculosis 278

13 Getting Off the Fix: Hog Cholera Eradication 302

14 The Mirror of the Past 316

Abbreviations 325

Notes 327

Bibliography 405

Acknowledgments 447

Index 449

Paul W. Rhode is Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan.

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