EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VI. 243 



disinfected, and where possible boiling water should be used for this pur- 

 pose, and in taking precautions against some of the parasites we should 

 keep away the host. Following the use of vermicides all the parasites 

 that have been expelled should be carefully collected and destroyed, by 

 fire or boiling water, and above all tuey should not be thrown on dung 

 heaps or any place where rain may carry them into the watering places 

 and thus reinfest the same individuals or carry embryos to some mem- 

 ber of the drove not infested. 



Of the diseases due to infection or, in other words, germ diseases, we 

 will mention among the most important tuberculosis, necrotic stomatitis 

 or sore mouth in pigs, and' hog cholera and swine plague. 



Tuberculosis in hogs occasions great losses to the swine breeders and 

 packers. Infection usually takes place through the medium of milk com- 

 ing from cattle suffering from tuberculosis, and one of the most fertile 

 sources of this infection lies in the separator milk coming from creamer- 

 ies where the milk has not been sterilized before being returned to the 

 farm. Infection may take place through the medium of the digestive 

 tract (which is the common port of entrance to the hog) from its eating 

 the dung of cattle suffering from intestinal tuberculosis, of those having 

 a bad form of tubercular broncho pneumonia, and it is quite possible that 

 small pigs may be infected by the milk of a tubercular mother, and 

 especially is this true when mammary tuberculosis exists. Infection may 

 take place from the udder or teats of the mother which has been con- 

 taminated by excreta from tuberculous cattle. 



The prophylactic measures recommended for the eradication of this 

 disease among swine are, first, sterilization of all creamery milk that is 

 used for feed, and, secondly, to prevent the hogs from running with 

 infected or suspected cattle, and as there is no means by which we can de- 

 termine when cattle or their feces become dangerous to the health of 

 persons or animals, every cow should be tested with tuberculin and the 

 disease eradicated from the herd. The result of recent expei'iments in- 

 dicates that the frequency with which milk contains tubercle bacilli is 

 greatly underestimated, especially when it is milked in the ordinary way 

 from tuberculous cows with normal udders or from healthy cows kept in 

 a tuberculous environment. 



Necrotic Stomatitis is a very virulent acute specific inflammation of 

 the mouth affecting pigs. It is characterized by the production of general 

 constitutional toxic symptoms, and locally by the formation of ulcers. 

 The necrotic process attacks the skin around the mouth and eyes, and may 

 gain entrance through the small wounds made on the lips or face by the 

 other pigs of the litter when they are nursing the mother. The portion 

 of the mouth usually involved is the region of the small tusks. The lips 

 are usually dry, crack and large areas of skin may necrose and drop out. 

 In some of the worst cases the process may extend to the eyes and cause 

 total blindness. When pigs are kept up too long after farrowing in a 

 small close dry pen, the toes, tail and ears may necrose and drop off as 

 a result of infection with this necrosis bacillus. The best way to deal 

 with this disease lies in disinfection, and keeping the pens and lots in a 

 good sanitary condition, which consists in the removal of all litter from 



