384 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF PIGS 



Foot-and-Mouth Disease, or aphthous fever, now happily 

 stamped out of the United Kingdom, is communicated by con- 

 tact with affected animals, including cattle and sheep, to which 

 pigs can also communicate it. Rats, poultry, and human 

 beings frequently carry the virus to healthy animals, in which 

 the period of incubation usually varies from two to five days, 

 although young pigs have died in eighteen hours after drink- 

 ing infected milk, which is the most infective and fatal medium 

 of communication. In the adult it is not dangerous to life, 

 though it leads to heavy loss through retarding progress in 

 growth and improvement of condition. An eruption of vesicles 

 or blisters may appear on the snout, lips, and feet, the hoofs 

 are liable to slough, and for a time the animal cannot move 

 about. Treatment : Salicylic acid lotions or carbolic acid 

 and glycerine \ dr. of acid to 10 or 12 oz. of glycerine 

 are applied to the feet, epsom salts (2 to 3 oz.) administered, 

 and sloppy food or milk given. 



Scrofula or tubercle usually affects the lungs, and the 

 animal after a time dies of consumption ; but it is more liable 

 to be generalised through a pig's body than through that of a 

 bovine or other farm animal, and this involves a greater danger 

 to the consumer of underdone pork than other forms of butcher 

 meat. The disease is oftenest seen when pigs are in-and-in 

 bred, but it is also encouraged by exposure to cold and wet. 

 It may be in a great measure prevented by importing fresh, 

 healthy blood to weaken the abnormal susceptibility to the 

 disease by strengthening the constitution ; and by taking every 

 precaution to disinfect the sties after a case has occurred ; and 

 by the isolation or slaughter of suspected animals. " Feeding 

 on tuberculous-tainted offal is not "an uncommon cause of the 

 disease, as also is the giving of milk from tuberculous cows. 

 The fact that the post-pharyngeal glands are early affected 

 points to contagion coming by the way of the mouth." 



Protrusion of the Rectum is liable to occur when flesh is 

 too abundant in a pig's diet and in young pigs affected with 

 diarrhoea. The treatment is simple, viz., to wash the parts 

 well and return them to their proper position ; to introduce 

 stitches, crossing the anus from hip to hip, and to feed 

 altogether on milk and treacle for a time. 



Measles, also called "pig typhoid," is one of the most 

 common diseases among swine. It is accompanied by a red 



