140 Twenty-Second Annual Report of the 



ently increasing from year to year, partly, it is believed, due to 

 feeding swine with garbage containing meat scraps coming from 

 affected bogs which are not sufficiently advanced to be indicated as 

 diseased by examinations of the carcasses. It has also been aided 

 by the distribution of infected hogs for breeding purposes, and 

 by the exhibition of show stock at local and State fairs with the 

 resultant exposure to infected animals at such places. 



While in New York the raising of swine does not reach such 

 importance as does the industry in many states, it is nevertheless 

 an important part of our agricultural activity. Losses from hog 

 cholera are sufficiently important to have much influence upon 

 swine raising. It is commonly supposed that losses of a few ani- 

 mals in each herd are not preventable, and when hog cholera or 

 other preventable diseases do prevail there is a tendency to defer 

 action in attempting to remedy the situation until the infection 

 has become so widespread as to be beyond ordinary control. 



This Department is recommending the use of preventive treat- 

 ment, namely, anti-hog-cholera serum. The use of serum has done 

 much to check the ravages of hog cholera among valuable animals 

 and on the larger hog farms, where it has been in use for some 

 years. The average swine owner, however, is not sufficiently 

 familiar with the disease to appreciate the necessity of taking 

 measures to prevent it. His indifference to minimum losses makes 

 it almost impossible to cause him to see the saving that could be 

 effected by the use of treatment, thereby in many cases entirely 

 obviating the loss from this disease. 



The administration of serum, while involving some preliminary 

 expense, can be used to decided economic advantages. This De- 

 partment has recommended the single treatment only, believing 

 that the double or simultaneous method is not justified in the 

 State of ISiew York, owing to the fact that it involves the distri- 

 bution of living virus in the blood from cholera-infected hogs, and 

 hence might introduce hog cholera in localities where it has not 

 previously exist. While the double treatment is more permanent 

 in its effects, rendering the animal immune to the disease for a 

 longer period, it is our belief that the benefits so gained are more 

 than offset by the dangers incident to its use in districts where 

 hog cholera is not generally prevalent, as is the case in the State 

 of ]STew York. The double treatment should be administered only 



