XXXX in Malta, 1978.

@entity1 @entity1707 @entity548 @entity75 @entity448 @entity33842 @entity221
In March 1978 an outbreak of @entity33842 ( @entity33842 ) occurred in Malta. The disease spread rapidly and by April 13, @entity33842 had been found on 304 premises involving 25,100 @entity1707 . A census carried out on April 15/16 showed that there were at least 1440 premises containing 70,700 @entity1707 on the island. A slaughter policy was implemented and depopulation of known infected premises started on April 15. @entity1707 which appeared normal on these premises were stored in freezers for subsequent processing for @entity1 consumption and by the end of June more than 4500 carcases were in cold store. The most consistent clinical signs were @entity221 , @entity448 and reluctance to move. @entity548 lymph nodes and petechial @entity548 in the kidneys were the predominant @entity75 . A serum survey, using the immunoelectroosmophoresis technique, was carried out on 2409 sera from 200 farms collected at the Government abattoir during a four-week period. Of these sera, 308 (12.8 per cent) from 65 (32.5 per cent) of the farms contained antibodies to @entity33842 virus. By August the original @entity1707 population had been reduced to one-third and a second census taken on August 15/16 showed that a total of 501 owners and 13,975 @entity1707 remained. The decision was taken to slaughter all the remaining @entity1707 and by the end of January 1979 there were no @entity1707 in Malta. The outbreak cost an estimated 5 million pounds and provided the first occasion when any country had slaughtered all members of a species of domestic animal in order to eliminate a disease.
