ABSTRACT
Glanders is one of the oldest diseases known, described by the Greeks in 450-425
and the Romans in 400-500
[7,10-13]. The disease was probably carried to Europe from Central Asia by the Mongols or Tartars [11,14]. In the 17th century, glanders was recognized as a contagious disease, but the etiologic agent was not identified until 1882, when the bacillus was isolated and identified by Loeffler and Schutz in Berlin, Germany. In the 19th century, transmission of glanders among horses via water troughs was identified, and it was shown that humans in contact with diseased horses could also develop infection. The modern species name for the agent is derived from the Greek
malis
and
melis
, terms used for diseases of Equidae, and from the Latin
malleus
, meaning “severe malignant disease” [3,10,11,13,14]. Historically, glanders was a serious disease, as horses were the mainstay of
civilian and military transport [11]. Because the disease thrived in war times, glanders was the scourge of military horses, and postwar transfer of Army horses to civilian services contributed to the spread of glanders far and wide. In the United States, the American Civil War caused the disease to spread over the eastern coast and to flourish in cities with large concentrations of horses. During the early 1900s, diagnostic tests were discovered, and glanders was rapidly brought under control. The advent of the automobile diminished the horse population and helped to stamp out the disease in the United States [7,15].
