HOG CHOLERA OR SWINE FEVER 385 



rash, a cough, and fever, and the animal ceases to feed. 

 Treatment Keep warm, open the bowels with castor or 

 linseed oil, and the skin with sulphur (i oz. daily), and act 

 on the kidneys with 2 drs. of sweet spirits of nitre. 



Measly pork has no connection with the foregoing ailment, 

 but is due to the presence in the flesh of the pig of a tape- 

 worm, Cysticercus cellulosus> in the early or bladder-worm 

 stage. In Germany and other parts of Western Europe, 

 where pork is insufficiently cooked, tape-worm in man is a 

 common ailment. 



Hog Cholera or Swine Fever is an eruptive disease 

 caused by a micro-organism possessing very considerable 

 vitality. The temperature rises to 104 to 106. It is the 

 great scourge of pigs' life, not only in America but in 

 this country. It is most contagious and deadly, the acute 

 form among young animals generally ending fatally in about 

 three days. In the chronic form " the animals die in from one 

 week to three. They may, however, recover, or drag on for 

 two months or more in an emaciated condition. The 

 symptoms usually take four to eight days to develop after the 

 animal has been in contact with infected animals. In countries 

 where the disease has been long established an infected 

 animal sometimes appears to be in normal health." Ulcers 

 about the size of a threepenny piece are present throughout 

 the alimentary track, "particularly round the junction of the 

 ileum with the caecum." Through the application of the 

 system of stamping out by the immediate slaughter of all 

 in-contact animals as soon as it is discovered, it is believed 

 the country will in time be freed from the disease, although 

 it has proved to be a much more formidable enemy to tackle 

 than pleuro-pneumonia or foot-and-mouth disease. Powers for 

 doing the work are conferred upon the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries, under the Diseases of Animals Acts, 1894 to 

 1903. The Board is "only empowered to pay compensa- 

 tion for swine slaughtered when it is thought necessary to 

 prevent the spread of the disease. Compensation is never 

 paid to indemnify a pig-owner for the losses sustained 

 by him by reason of the outbreak of disease amongst his 

 swine." 



It is believed by many practical authorities interested in 

 the matter that there is not a sufficient inducement offered 



2 B 



