HOG CHOLERA 



BY B. B. FLOWE, STATE VETERINARIAN. 



Hog cholera is a liigly contagious and infectious disease of hogs. It 

 is characterized by high' fever, ranging from 104 to 107 degrees Fahren- 

 heit, loss of appetite, red or purple spots on the belly between the fore- 

 legs and on the ears, and a niuco-purulent discharge from the nose and 

 eyes. This discharge often pastes the eyelids together, and causes a 

 snuffling sound in breathing. In the last stage of the disease, and just 

 before death, the animal has muscular tremors and wobbling gait. 



Period of Incubation. 



The period of incubation is the number of days between contracting 

 the germ causing hog cholera, and the manifestation of the first symp- 

 toms or evidence of sickness. This time ranges from four to twenty-one 

 days, depending on the susceptibility of the individual hog and the 

 virulence of the infection. 



An acute form of hog cholera indicates a virulent form of infection, 

 Avhile a slow or chronic form of hog cholera indicates an infection weak 

 in virulency. 



Symptoms. 



A post-mortem and anti-mortem study of hog cholera will show a 

 greater variety of symptoms than any other disease affecting hogs. 

 For this reason, it is often hard for the farmer who has not had special 

 training along this line to detect the first sick hog in his herd, and 

 often a large per cent of his hogs are sick before he even suspects they 

 are sick. Then not being able to detect the nature of the disease he 

 does nothing until most of his hogs are sick and the first ones to show 

 any signs of being sick are beginning to die, when it is too late to do 

 anything. So far, we know nothing that will cure an advanced case of 

 hog cholera. Then, again, we see in some herds one or two hogs that 

 contract a mild form of the disease and are off feed for a few days, but 

 soon recover. From these animals the entire herd may become infected, 

 and this before cholera is even suspected. 



In the chronic form we are more apt to be deceived, and this is es- 

 pecially so when there has been a previous outbreak of an acute form 

 on the farm. This is so because in the chronic form the affected hogs 

 will linger along for weeks and sometimes for more than a month before . 

 . they finally die, or recover, as the case may be. But the acute form 

 usually wipes the entire herd out within a short time after it first gains 

 jentrance in the herd. 



Among the first symptoms seen in hogs affected with cholera is a loss 

 of appetite, a tendency to hide in the litter or some secluded place and 

 if forced to get up they show a stiffness in their gait, as if they had 

 tender feet, and the back is usually more or less arched. At first there 



