A Treatise on the Measures Taken Against Cattle Plague in the Ottoman State During the First World War: Sığır Vebası ve Hakkında ittihazı Lâzım Gelen Tedâbir

Abstract

As in many states and societies, animal diseases had a negative impact on the Ottoman Empire from the early modern period onwards, and the state had to take various measures according to the incidence of such diseases, their locations, and the number of animals that perished. Bovine plague, also known as cattle plague, began to be seen more frequently in Anatolia, especially in the last quarter of the 19th century, and became widespread after the 1880s, causing severe livestock losses. In the face of plague and other diseases, the Ottoman Empire started to enact several legal regulations in the 1890s. It issued the Zabıta-i Sıhhiye-i Hayvaniye Talimatnamesi in 1893, primarily to prevent the spread of diseases. Despite the state's implementation of such legal regulations, the plague continued to impact until World War I. In order to recognize and prevent the disease, the state published the pamphlet titled Sığır Vebâsı ve Hakkında İttihazı Lazım Gelen Tedâbir [Cattle Plague and the Measures to be taken about it] in R. 1331 [M. 1915/16]. In this pamphlet prepared by the Directorate of Umur-ı Baytariyye, the disease, its causes, the measures to be taken against it, and vaccination and serum studies were mentioned. This pamphlet, in which the cattle and sick animals vaccinated in the relevant period are presented with rich visual content, shows how effective and efficient measures the state tried to take against the bovine plague disease even under war conditions at the beginning of the 20th century. Our research aims to introduce this important pamphlet by making explanations about the general course of the disease in the Ottoman Empire and the measures taken using this important historical source. © This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. 2025. Yılmaz, E.