EEPOET OF THE BUEEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTEY. 145 



No. 139 showed the same symptoms at first, but recovered more 

 rapidly and was apparently well in five days after inoculation.* 



NOTES ON TWO OUTBEEAKS OF SWINE DISEASE IN VIEGINIA AND 



MAEYLAND. 



Virginia. On a farm near The Plains, Va. , an infectious disease ap- 

 peared among the swine in October. There were on the farm at that 

 time about sixty-five shoats, from three to five months old, weighing 

 60 to 100 pounds each. The disease was at its height in November, 

 and disappeared at the end of the year. Up to this time about forty- 

 three had succumbed. The pigs were born on the place, and had 

 been running in a large range following the cattle until the disease 

 appeared, when they were penned. They died so rapidly that they 

 were all turned out again. 



The origin of this disease is very obscure. The past history does 

 not give any clew to its introduction. During the great swine epi- 

 demic three years ago this farm was not spared, but since then it had 

 been free until January, 1888, when out of a lot of forty similar 

 shoats seven died. Some of this lot were still on the farm at the be- 

 ginning of the present outbreak. That the January outbreak was 

 due to an infectious disease seems hardly probable considering the 

 small number that died. At time of the last outbreak the disease 

 did not exist in the neighborhood. No swine had been brought 

 upon the farm for five years. There was no evidence of infection 

 from streams, since the farm is situated on a water-shed. The feed 

 is likewise grown on the farm. 



Information of this outbreak was received more than a week after 

 the last shpat had died. Dr. Kilborne visited the farm January 9, 

 at which time these facts were made known to him. Two of the con- 

 valescents were killed and the lungs brought to the laboratory, they 

 being the only visibly diseased organs. 



On inquiry the following general facts concerning symptoms were obtained : No 

 redness of skin on trunk or ears. Rapid emaciation with tucked-up appearance of 

 abdomen; frequent prolonged coughing almost to suffocation. Of the two killed, 

 one had been sick for six "weeks, but was now partly recovered and in good flesh. 

 There were no lesions of the abdominal organs. The thoracic organs, however, 

 showed traces of a severe inflammation. The pericardium was extensively adherent 

 to the heart muscle by short fibers and the latter covered by a thin layer of newly 

 formed fibrous tissue. Both lungs were more or less adherent to ribs and diaphragm 

 by strong fibrous bands. The most conspicuous thing was the enormous enlarge- 

 ment of the glands at the root of the lungs (trachea!, bronchial). They appeared 

 like a bunch of large grapes of a bluish-red color. On section the cortex appeared as 

 a red line, and similar lines passed through the parenchyma, which had a pale larda- 

 ceous appearance. The lungs were about twice the collapsed size, very flabby, the 

 various lobes bound together by short, firm fibers. 



A large portion of the principal lobe is airless, of a pale red-color on section, and 

 oedematous. The bronchi have their walls thickened (peribronchitis). The re- 

 mainder of the lung tissue is in practically the same condition. The large air tubes 

 have the mucosa covered with a layer of glairy mucus, the small vessels injected. 



One of two rabbits which received ^ cubic centimeter of a hypodermic injection 

 of lung emulsion died in four days, with extensive pasty thickening of the subcutis 

 of thigh, discoloration of subjacent muscles, gelatinous exudate over the groin and 

 on muscles of abdomen. In the latter cavity the caecum and contiguous portion of 

 colon are covered with minute subserous hemorrhages. The exudate is slight, cover- 

 ing in part the inflamed intestines and the liver, viscid so as to be drawn out into thin 

 threads when coils of intestine are lifted up. Very many coccus-like germs in this 



* Recently an abdominal injection from agar cultures derived from pig No. 8 (Iowa) 

 produced intense peritonitis, pleuritis, a croupous eociidate on the mucosa of nearly 

 two-thirds of small intestines, and an intense reddening of the mucosa of the large 

 intestine. 



12057 A I 10 



