No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 137 



laboratory diagnosis of anthrax that was first proposed by McFadyean, is still 

 in use to a considerable extent in our work. It consists in cutting off an ear, 

 which may be placed in a clean glass fruit jar that may be hermetically 

 closed. This jar is then packed in straw and ice, in a bucket, and sent to the 

 laboratory. The blood vessels in the ear contain sufficient blood for laboratory 

 examination. Advantages of this method are that it is easy to carry out, that 

 it is relativiily sale and that it is not necessary to open the carcass in order 

 to obtain a specimen. Some of our correspondents have the impression that it 

 is necessary to stnd a sample of spleen or of liver for laboratory exammation 

 when this disease is suspected. Such material is not generally necessary and 

 a sample of spleen should not be taken under ordinary circumstances— only 

 when the carcass is in such a location, as on top of a pile of wood where it 

 is to be burned, or along side of a deep pit that has already been prepared, so 

 that whatever leakage of blood there may be from the carcass may be burned 

 with it or shoveled into the pit and deeply covered so that there can be no 

 escape of infectious material. After the occurrence of a case of anthrax, 

 where the diagnosis has been made in the laboratory, or when there are reas- 

 onable grounds for believing that the disease has occurred, the first action 

 taken is to see that the carcasses of dead animals are properly disposed of by 

 methods rept atediy described in previous reports, and then measures are taken 

 to protect the exposed animals by vaccination. Seven hundred and forty-six 

 animals have been vaccinated against anthrax during the past year. The dou- 

 ble vaccination method that has been used has proven to be thoroughly effec- 

 tive. We have learned of no animal, during the past year, that has died of 

 anthrax after the completion of vaccination. 



ABORTION. Abortion has prevailed to a less extent in breeding herds than 

 for many years. Now that this disease is recognized as a contagious disease and 

 is treated as such, there is no serious difficulty in overcoming it. It is known 

 that abortion may be conveyed from cow to cow in a herd by the bull. It may 

 also be conveyed by contact between infected and uninfected cows. Disinfec- 

 tion and isolation are, tlierefore, indicated in the treatment and prevention of 

 this disease. The infected animals, and animals that may reasonably be sus- 

 pected of harboring infection, should be isolated from healthy animals until 

 they have been thoroughly treated in such a way as to destroy the infection of 

 abortion that they may carry. Full directions for this treatment have been 

 published in earlier reports and in a circular from the Department of Agri- 

 culture, which may be obtained upon application. 



A great deal of money has been spent by some herd owners for certain 

 widely heralded secret "abortion cures." These "cures" usualy consist of 

 two parts, sometimes of three. There is an injection that is used to disinfect 

 the genital passages of the cow, and there is a "medicine" to be given internally, 

 sometimes by the mouth, sometimes by subcutaneous injection. Then there is 

 a disinfecta,nt for the premises. So far as the injection operates as a disin- 

 fectant, It is useful: so f.'-r as tlie disinfectant for the premises is an effective 

 reliable agent for this purpose, it is useful. It is more than highly probable 

 that the good that comes from the use of these secret and high priced "cures" 

 result from the action of cheap disinfectants that they may contain. The only 

 internal remedy that, upon careful trial has seemed to be of any special service 

 -in abortion is carbolic acid. This is sometimes given by the mouth, sometimes 

 it is injected in the skin, but it has been noted that this remedy cannot be re- 

 lied upon excepting when it is accompanied by measures of disinfection as ap- 

 plied to the members of the herd and the premises that they occupy. Many 

 herds excessively heavily infested with abortion have been entirely freed from 

 this infection and plac§d upon a healthy basis by the use of disinfectants 

 alone — disinfection of the infected portions of the diseased or exposed animals, 

 and disinfection of the premises — without the use of any internal medicination. 

 As in the case with several infectious diseases, abortion sometimes runs its 

 course and disappears without any treatment. Hog cholera sometimes does the 

 same. Where this is true of a disease it is very easy, though faulty observation, 

 to fall into the error of assuming that some particular process of treatment 

 that has been used, is responsible for a cure which has been perfected 

 wholly by nature, and which would have occurred just the same if no treat- 

 ment or "cure" had been applied. It is this fact, no doubt, that has led to the 

 undes- ivin!? endorsement of so many patent medicines. Tlie value of a reme- 

 dial method cannot be determined by one or by a few trials or by scattering ob- 

 servations without opportunity for correct comparison, made by men who are 

 unfamiliar with the precautions that it is necessary to observe in order to draw 

 sound conclusions in work of this kind. 



This statement in regard to the use of proprietary remedies in the treatment 

 of herds infected v.'ith abortion, is made for the purpose of protecting herd 

 owners against disappointment and loss thnt may come from dependence upon 

 the unfounded claims of the purveyors of these cures, and against the exorbi- 

 tant prices which are charged for so m.uch of these treatments as are of any 

 value. 



Aetinomijvosis. lumpy jnw or big jaw occurs occasionally among cattle in all 

 parts of the State. This disease is not directly conveyed from animal to 

 animal. Infection is derived from vegetation carrying the fungus actinomycosis 

 upon which the animal feeds. 



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