220 COMMON DISEASES. 



ditions. Thus it will be seen that an outbreak of hog cholera, or 

 of mixed infection, is more difficult to control and more serious 

 in every way than is an outbreak of swine plague, because the 

 germs will linger for a longer time in the soil and various hiding 

 places. These two diseases spread with equal rapidity, are dissem- 

 inated by the same conditions and in the same way, and so far as 

 known, are equally fatal. 



When an outbreak appears. — In case there is a suspicious 

 disease among hogs in a neighborhood, the matter should be re- 

 ported promptly to health officers, and this first outbreak should be 

 rigidly quarantined. 



But one man should have the care of a herd of healthy hogs, 

 and this man should not be allowed to go where there is a possi- 

 bility of getting the infection. Neither the owner nor any mem- 

 ber of his family should go to any farm where an infectious swine 

 disease has appeared ; nor should anyone from the farm where 

 such sickness is present be allowed to walk about the yards of his 

 neighbors. 



Dogs and other dangerous visitors should be kept away from 

 the pens on uninfected farms by a temporary fence of woven wire. 



Before a herd becomes infected, it may be very desirable to 

 divide it into three or four parts, and separate these groups widely 

 on different portions of the farm. The owner may then lose one 

 group, or even two groups, and still save the others, should the 

 disease come his way. 



If hog cholera appears in a herd during the summer or fall 

 when the weather is pleasant, it is desirable to turn the hogs out 

 into a large yard or field rather than to keep them closely confined 

 in pens or stables, where the danger from infection is greatly in- 

 creased. Larger or smaller doses of infection have much to do 

 with determining the fatality of the disease. If hogs are allowed 

 to run in yards or fields, each hog is exposed to the smallest pos- 

 sible amount of infection. With a herd so treated, the disease 

 may reasonably be expected to spread less rapidly, and to be some- 

 what less fatal. Hogs should not be allowed access to small pond.-v 

 or mud holes during the prevalence of any suspicious disease 

 among them. Such ponds and mud holes become deadly centers 

 of infection. 



If the weather is cool or wet, the herd should be given quar- 

 ters as warm and dry as possible, for with hogs turned out to shift 



