CHAPTER XI 



CONTROL AND EEADICATION OF HOG. CHOLERA 



CONTROL of an infectious disease means that 

 rather definite limits have been placed on its 

 spread. Eradication, as applied to a particular 

 area, implies that all the virus which causes the 

 disease has been killed, and that the malady can 

 no longer exist unless it is introduced from with- 

 out. Naturally, in a country in which an acute 

 and fatal infectious disease such as hog cholera 

 is widely disseminated control is the first con- 

 sideration. But eradication is the distant goal, 

 and while our progress toward this goal must at 

 times yield to expediency, there must be no per- 

 manent or long surrender to methods that con- 

 tribute nothing toward the ultimate purpose. 



Long acceptance of losses due to hog cholera 

 has given us a fatalistic attitude toward the dis- 

 ease. Like the poor, it is always with us and we 

 habitually expect and tolerate it as we expect and 

 tolerate inclemencies of weather or the infirmi- 

 ties of old age. If a foreign infectious swine dis- 

 ease, equally destructive and equally well under- 

 stood, were to appear in this country, even though 



230 



