213 



when swill constitutes the main feed. So far as I have been 

 able to ascertain no hog cholera or any other disease of an en- 

 demic nature has occurred here among hogs fed in a rational 

 w^ay. that is, corn or other grain, roots and field crops, especially 

 alfalfa, and when kept under sanitary conditions with access 

 to pasture and plenty of fresh water. On the Parker ranch for 

 instance hundreds of hogs are raised annually without losses 

 worth mentioning. To assume that any form of serum or other 

 treatment can take the place of sanitation and experience or can 

 balance a one-sided ration is fallacious, but where losses are due 

 to infection from disease-producing bacteria much can undoubt- 

 edly be gained by judicious treatment. Nor can it be gainsaid 

 that hog raising methods have been revolutionized on the main- 

 land of the United States since the general use of anti-hog 

 cholera serum has so effectively reduced the animal losses from 

 this disease and given an impetus to hog raising never known 

 before. 



VETERINARV CONVENTION IN OAKLAND, CAL. 



The success of this new treatment is due almost exclusively 

 to scientists of the federal Bureau of Animal Industry and to 

 the state livestock sanitary officials as well as the practicing 

 A-eterinarians of the United States. It is estimated that nearly 

 one thousand of these official and private veterinarians will meet 

 in Oakland, California, the latter part of August this year, for 

 tiie purpose of exchanging ideas and experience relative to the 

 control and suppression of infectious and contagious diseases 

 among live stock, and with a view to the ultimate eradication of 

 such scourges as bovine tuberculosis, hog cholera, rabies, Texas 

 fever and foot and mouth disease. The value of such an oppor- 

 tunity to exchange ideas and come in direct communication with 

 men of great experience on the subjects which are confronting 

 us here in Hawaii cannot be overestimated, and the writer takes 

 the opportunity herewith to thank the Board for delegating him 

 to attend the 53rd annual convention of the American Veterinary 

 Medical Association in Oakland next month. 



While the hog cholera serum which has been used here up to 

 the present time may have been everything that could be expect- 

 ed, an opportunity will also be afforded at this meeting to learn 

 which of the more than ninety authorized manufacturers produce 

 the most reliable serum. More than $60,000 worth of spurious 

 or inferior serum has been confiscated by federal inspectors, and 

 it is not impossible that the quantitv wdiich reached Hawaii has 

 not all been of the best. Some of it at least has been decidedly 

 foul smelling when opened and much of it has contained so 

 much sediment as to make it difficult of administration. It may 

 be taken for granted that every manufacturer of serum will 

 haA-e an exhibit at or near the convention hall and that unpreju- 



