428 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [J.une 2, 1920, 



Fowls are also resistant to the disease, and in Sou h America tlieT 

 vulture has been declared capable of spreading anthrax through the injection 

 of anthrax meat and the voidances of the spores in the faeces. The probability 

 is tliat this resistance is shared by many others, including our own carrion- 

 eating birds. It would be possible, in the case of neighbouring piggeries, 

 for birds to. carry bits of garbage and food from an infected sty to a clean ong. 



Flies have been accused, with apparent good reason, of acting as occasional 

 carriers of anthrax bacilli and swine fever virus, and this furnishes another 

 reason for their destruction. '' 



I 



By Infection during Temporary Absence. 



Very few of our diseases are liable to be contracted under ordinary con- 

 ditions by an animal when temporarily off the farm, but one at least of 

 these few is of great economic importance — that is, contagious abortion. 

 This' may be brought back to a farm by a bull loaned to a neighbour or a cow 

 sent to a neighbour's bull for service. These are always dangerous practices- 

 in districts where contagious abortion is rife, but they are often^ilna voidable, 

 and extra care should be taken with such animals on their return. The 

 bull should have his sheath well syringed out with mild disinfectant and hi& 

 belly washed with the same and be kept from the lierd cows for a few days. 



The same process should be carried out when cows are taken on to the 

 farm for service. It is always desirable that such visiting cows should not 

 mingle with the herd cows. Cows which may l)e served by bulls from other 

 farms are a source of trouble, because such a long period ma}' elapse before 

 syuiptoms of abortion disease are evident, and isolation for such a period is at 

 best a continued source of inconvenience and frequently impracticable. The 

 safest plan is not to borrow the service of other bulls unless it is known that 

 the farms on which they live are clean — not an easy matter. 



Horses are always liable to contract strangles and influenza from contact 

 with affected horses in public stables, and on occasion from public drinking 

 place.s. Very little can be done to pi'event such 'infection. Cleanliness and 

 good ventilation in the stables will be of some avail. 



By use of an Infected Farm. 

 In the case of certain diseases (of which tuberculosis, anthrax, tetanus,, 

 blackleg, hiemorrhagic septicieraia, and spirochajtosis of fowls are the most 

 important) the farmer's stock may be infected by their introduction on to 

 infected land or piemises. Four of the above — tetanus, anthrax, blackleg, 

 and baemorrhagic septicaemia, the organisms of which diseases remain in 

 the soil for long periods — can hardly be guarded against by any general 

 measures, except that in the case of blackleg, if' certain farms or portions of 

 farms Iiave a bad i-eputation, the use of such areas fo^ cultivation is 

 recommended. There are in most centres, wherein grazing is carried out on 

 a large scale, certain areas in which anthrax very connnonly occurs, apart 

 from the sporadic cases due to forage and bonodust infection. Such 

 outbreaks are due to soil infection. These areas are generally well known 



