234 FARM ANIMALS 



Diseases of Pigs. The farmer, of course, is 

 chiefly interested in the positive side of the pig 

 business, that is in the production of pork. In 

 order to make a great success of this, however, 

 it is necessary to become acquainted with the 

 various drawbacks which may be brought by 

 disease. Pigs, like other farm animals, are subject 

 to a variety of diseases, but not all of them are 

 of great seriousness. The chief drawbacks to 

 hog raising throughout the corn belt are found 

 in hog cholera and swine plague. These two 

 diseases, or, as it appears from recent investigations, 

 three diseases, there being two forms of hog 

 cholera, sometimes occur separately or are found 

 together in the same hog, and when once the 

 infection has become established on the farm 

 it is somewhat difficult to get rid of it. Hog 

 cholera is an infectious disease which attacks 

 chiefly the intestines and corresponds most closely 

 to typhoid fever in man. The appetite suddenly 

 disappears, a high fever is seen and the bowels 

 may be constipated or be affected with a profuse 

 diarrhea. The affected hogs often hide them- 

 selves in corners of the yard or crawl under straw 

 or rubbish. A red coloration may appear on the 

 skin of the ears, neck and flanks. The animals 

 may die in two or three days or may linger for 

 a month or longer and the mortality is eighty per 

 cent, or higher. 



Swine Plague differs from hog cholera in that 

 the chief seat of the disease is in the lungs so that 

 the disease may be described as more nearly 

 pneumonia and the infection takes place through 

 the air while in hog cholera it takes place in the 

 food. Otherwise the two diseases resemble one 

 another very closely and, in fact, sometimes can- 



