SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX 503 



Much has been said and written in regard to cleaning up and dis- 

 infecting places after an outbreak has occurred. Yet, how little is 

 being done today ! We, as veterinarians and sanitarians, should not 

 neglect this very important phase of eradication. We should co- 

 operate in every possible manner with our State Animal Health 

 Board to see that the rules established by them are strictly enforced. 

 It should be made compulsory for farmers to burn all dead hogs 

 within a very short time after death. All litter and manure in hog 

 pens and yards should be either burned or thoroughly disinfected 

 with a strong dip or slacked lime before it is scattered upon the 

 fields. Buildings in which sick or dying hogs have been kept should 

 be disinfected, for it is usually in such places that the hog cholera 

 germ is kept alive for the longest period of time, for these sheds are 

 usually dark and damp. The walls should be thoroughly saturated 

 with a very strong disinfectant, and if the floors are of dirt, there 

 should be several inches of the top removed, and a heavy coating of 

 lime applied. Then it should be refilled with dirt to the thickness 

 that has been removed. All litter and cobs scattered over the hog 

 yards should be raked up and burned. Veterinarians should not 

 leave an infected place without washing their hands and disinfecting 

 their shoes before entering their vehicles. The importance of this 

 feature should be impressed upon the farmer so that he may do 

 likewise. There is no doubt that cholera has many times been car- 

 ried from one farm to another in this way. Unless a veterinarian 

 is sure that his shoes are free from infection, he should not step 

 inside any farmer's hog lot. He should always carefully protect 

 the interest of his client in every way possible. 



On account of the crop condition in the past year, many stock 

 hogs were shipped from the frost-stricken districts to other parts of 

 the country which were less affected by frost. Many of these hogs 

 came from Minnesota and Wisconsin. In some cases where ship- 

 ments were interstate, the Iowa law, which requires that hogs from 

 other states shipped into Iowa must be vaccinated either with the 

 single treatment immediately before shipment or the double treat- 

 ment twenty-one days prior to the time of shipment, wa^ disre- 

 garded. These hogs were driven through infected stock yards and 

 shipped in infected cars, and conseciuently, in the course of two or 

 three weeks after arriving at their destination, many outbreaks ap- 

 peared. 



In a number of cases where interstate shipment was made, rail- 

 roads notified the veterinary department, which caused them t^ be 



