THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 151 



he made his figures, based upon an ordinary crop of hogs in the state, and 

 came to the conclusion that we were losing at least a million dollars' 

 worth, not less than $12 per head 



While I was speaking about the filterable germ, I should have said 

 that we base our theory that it is a germ disease upon the fact that it is 

 transmissible by inoculation from one hog to another. We have some of 

 the most deadly epidemics imaginable that are absolutely harmless so 

 far as any other animal is concerned, unless they get in touch with the 

 same cause. For instance, the horse plague which affected the southwest 

 country last fall could not be transmitted from one horse to another by 

 blood serum or serum from the cranial cavity. Cholera is easily trans- 

 missible, and surely transmissible in every case, unless you undertake to 

 transmit to either a natural or acquired immune. 



Now, we believe hog cholera may be prevented, and some things have 

 been done toward laying the foundation for its control. There is an as- 

 sociation called the United States Association of Live Stock Sanitary 

 Boards, which meets every year in Chicago, about the time of the Inter- 

 national show. The membership is made up of state veterinarians, mem- 

 bers of live stock sanitary boards, and men in control of diseases in the 

 various states, and some of those engaged in laboratory work. Last De- 

 cember they adopted a set of resolutions that I will give you the gist of, 

 so you will know what they are aiming at. One is that all stock cars 

 at the end of a shipment of live stock be cleaned and disinfected. You 

 have all seen the stock cars go up and down the roads all the season, 

 with from one to two feet of manure in them, reeking with cholera and 

 tuberculosis, and nobody knows how many other germs. Manure is one 

 of the best mediums for the virus of these diseases to live in. At every 

 crossroads that stuff is being rooted and kicked out of the cars all over 

 this country. One ruling that the Live Stock Sanitary Association made 

 relative to that was that these cars should not be disinfected simply by 

 steam and whitewash, but be cleaned and disinfected. Wouldn't you 

 gentlemen rather have a car come to you to load your cattle or hogs in, 

 that was clean and properly sanded, than to have it reeking with filthy 

 manure that had been there all season? You know what it is to ride by 

 a trainload of empties in the summer-time, coming back for your stock; 

 you often have to put the windows down, especially if you stop at a sta- 

 tion alongside of those cars. 



Another means of spreading of disease is the shipping of breeding hogs 

 from state to state. The Live Stock Sanitary Association passed a resolu- 

 tion favoring the treatment of all hogs shipped from one state to another, 

 except for immediate slaughter, but they didn't specify which treatment. 

 You have heard that there are two lines of treatment to be followed, but, 

 contemplating probably that it would be the serum only treatment, they 

 specify that it should be given not more than thirty days prior to ship- 

 ment. I happened to be on that committee, and after I thought the mat- 

 ter over, I concluded that we should have specified in that resolution 

 that if it was serum only treatment, not more than thirty days prior to 

 shipment; and if the serum simultaneous treatment, not less than thirty, 

 or probably not less than sixty days; because the simultaneously treated 

 Jiog may carry cholera. 



