522 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



go away from home to buy a hog, quarantine him on your own farm 

 and find out whether he has been exposed to the disease. He may come 

 down with hog cholera five or six days after you get him home, and 

 inoculate your herd. 



There are some other sources of infection. In quite a few instances, 

 hog cholera has appeared some little distance away from the infected 

 territory. The question arises as to how the disease jumped five or 

 six miles. The supposition is that it is carried over there in some way, 

 but how is a hard thing to determine. We have found in this county 

 work that in sections where they have carrying birds, like crows, they 

 will feed upon the carcass of a hog, and they may carry enough material 

 on their feet, or in some other way, from the infected farm several miles 

 to another farm to start the disease. As to how many times they 

 actually do this we are not able to tell; but ■^e do know that they feed 

 on carcasses, and we know that cholera appears some distance away. 

 Of course, I have thought it was rather hard on the crow to advocate 

 the destruction of all crows on account of the carelessness of farmers 

 in leaving carcasses exposed; but if all carcasses were at once burned, 

 we would do away with a large part of the infection. They tell me in 

 those sections where buzzards are plentiful that the buzzard after feeding 

 on a carcass will vomit. I don't know of any better way for your hogs 

 to get sick. I do not know whether the crow ever does that. Over in 

 Indiania where we have one county in this experimental work, there 

 are a great many pigeons, and our inspector has an idea that these 

 pigeons have played quite an important role in spreading hog cholera. 

 We can not tell just what this part is, but it is reasonable to suppose 

 that a flock of pigeons alighting in an infected yard, picking up corn, 

 may go right over to a nearby yard and carry the disease. 



So if the individual farmer is extremely careful about the way in 

 which he handles his herd, and about going around diseased herds, and 

 keeping people away from his farm that have been around diseased 

 herds, he has a good chance of escaping a good many of these sources 

 of infection; but he would not be able to escape the infection if crows, 

 buzzards or pigeons are going to fly over the country. 



I would like to explain to you the method of hog cholera eradication, 

 but it would take more time than we have. You want to hear about 

 the part that serum treatment may play. The serum as worked out by 

 the Bureau of Animal Industry has given most excellent results in the 

 hands of people competent to use it. All of the government experiments 

 have shown the thorough reliability of serum treatment. You have heard 

 over the country about some bad results attending the use of serum in 

 certain herds. I will say truthfully that there are two reasons why 

 serum as used in practice does not always produce the results you want. 

 One is that all serum is not potent, and I am not able to say how much 

 of the serum made by private manufacturers Is potent; but we know it 

 Is not all as potent as it should be. I believe the private manufacturers 

 are trying to put out a fair serum, and in the main have done so. An- 

 other reason. you do not get satisfactory results is that a great many 

 people have used serum who do not understand its use. It is neces- 

 sary to use serum before the animal \h sick, or vpry far ^^vanoed In 



