HOG CHOLERA 



UY U. H. KLOWK. STATE VKTKKIN AKIAN. 



Hog cholera is a highly contagious and infectious disease of hogs which, 

 so far as is known, afiects only hogs. It is characterized by its con- 

 tagiousness and a very liigh death rate. It is usual to speak of this 

 disease as either chronic or acute. This is because in some instances the 

 disease is sudden at the onset and very rapid in its termination, which is 

 usually death. In chronic cases the appearance of the disease is slower, 

 and the alTected animals may linger for weeks, and sometimes months, 

 before they finally die or recover from the disease. However, the cause 

 of the disease is the same, but the difference in appearance may be due 

 to the high resisting power of the individual hog or to an itinuated virus. 



Hog -cholera is found in nearly all parts of the world. The first record 

 of its outbreak in the United States was in Ohio, in 1833, since which 

 time it has spread to all the large hog-raising states and to nearly all of 

 the other state at some time or another. Some of the larger hog-raising 

 states are losing more than three million dollars worth annually from 

 this disease. The annual loss of hogs in the United States from this 

 disease is estimated at the enormous sum of sixty million ($60,000,000) 

 dollars. The annual loss in North Carolina alone is estimated at con- 

 siderably over three-quarters of a million dollars ($750,000). This 

 enormous loss is going on while many thousands of dollars are being sent 

 out of the State annually for pork, lard and other meat products. 



The first record we have of this disease occuring in North Carolina 

 was in 1859, according to Commissioner Polk's report of 1879, which 

 reads as follows : 



"Before dismissing the subject of stock, I may mention an additional fact, 

 developed by these returns, that operates seriously against our farmers, and 

 that may be worthy the attention of our Legislature. I allude to the destruc- 

 tion of hogs by the epidemic known as cholera. Since its introduction into 

 the State, in the year of 1859, it has continued its ravages, with more or less 

 damage, defying all treatment. It has thus far baffled the researches of veter- 

 inary science, and is alike unrestrained by heat, cold, latitude or other local 

 ^conditions. The number of hogs reported in the counties before mentioned 

 is 917,266; the number reported as destroyed by disease during the year is 

 169,104 — a little over 17 per cent of the whole number. We may safely as- 

 sume that full returns of all the counties in the State would increase the loss 

 to at least 200,000 hogs. It will thus be seen that from this source alone our 

 people lose hundreds of thousands of dollars annually." 



C.VrSE OF HOG CHOLERA 



The germ or microbe which causes hog cholera has never been culti- 

 vated in the laboratories, as has been with many other infectious germs. 

 However, the germ or microbe is present in the blood of sick hogs and 



