300 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



roads over which infected animals are driven are also contami- 

 nated and carry infection to adjacent farms. The small and large 

 stock yards are distributing points of cholera infection. Many a 

 farmer, who has delivered a load of healthy fat hogs to the stock 

 yards at his shipping station, has carried home on his shoes suf- 

 ficient infectious material to start an outbreak of cholera among 

 the hogs that were kept for breeding purposes. 



The swine quarters at "stock shows," state and county fairs, 

 have at times become infected with cholera through the careless- 

 ness or ignorance of an inexperienced exhibitor or herdsman in 

 exposing his show herd, in the stock yards at his home station, 

 when starting on the show circuit, or shipping the animals in an 

 unclean, infected hog car. During the past year cholera was 

 brought to the State Fair and the "American Royal" by a herd 

 from an adjoining State, and was followed by outbreaks in eigh- 

 teen (and probably more) registered herds, and was carried to 

 four different states. One exhibitor says that he lost ten thou- 

 sand dollars' worth of hogs. Some of the best show animals, and 

 a large number of his herd died. The losses by a number of other 

 exhibitors were very heavy. In this case every precaution had 

 been taken by the State Fair management to provide clean, dis- 

 infected quarters. This work, however, went for naught because 

 of the inexperience of one herdsman who had charge of a valuable 

 herd. 



MEASURES OF PREVENTION AND CONTROL. 



What has been said about the nature of the disease, the symp- 

 toms, post-mortem appearances, the sources of infection and the 

 various ways in which it is spread, suggests many practical meth- 

 ods of keeping the disease out of a herd ; and of limiting its spread 

 should it by any means be brought into a neighborhood. 



In the purchase of breeding hogs it is a wise precaution to as- 

 certain whether the farm from which the purchase is made has 

 had any recent cholera infection. The hogs purchased should -be 

 kept apart from the home herd for a few weeks in well isolated 

 quarantine pens. The animals should be dipped or sprayed with 

 some disinfectant. They should also be given several days' treat- 

 ment with an intestinal disinfectant, in order to clean the diges- 

 tive tract of any cholera germs that may be lying dormant. For 

 this purpose I would recommend giving with the food the mixture 

 commonly known as the "Government Hog Cholera Remedy" (see 

 Farmers' Bulletin, No. 24, U. S. Department of Agriculture) which 



