156 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



they may take the disease by feeding. Flies can only carry such 

 small quantities of the virus that they are not likely to prove danger- 

 ous if disinfection and cleaning of feed troughs is attended to. 



If these measures are carefully carried out the disease may either be 

 checked or else mild cases only will appear, owing to the small quan- 

 tity of poison which the animals are likely to consume with the food. 



The epizootic may be terminated by the destruction of most of the 

 herd. This unfortunately is usually the case. What precautions 

 must be taken to prevent subsequent outbreaks? 



If only a few animals remain it is best to slaughter them, as they 

 are likely to suffer with the disease in a mild form and continue to 

 infect the premises. If no more animals remain, there should be a 

 final thorough disinfection and subsequent cleaning of the whole 

 exposed territory, including every nook or corner where the disease 

 has existed. This should be done with solution No. 2 or No. 3, as di- 

 rected, used as freely as possible. After one or two days the ground 



may be covered with a thin layer, one-eighth inch or more, of slaked 

 lime in the strength above given and left undisturbed. If there is 

 no objection to whitewash this maybe applied to infected wood- work 

 as an additional safeguard. Even after this thorough treatment it 

 is best not to place any fresh pigs on the premises for at least four 

 months after the final disinfection. When animals still remain that 

 have been exposed and have not taken the disease, no fresh animals 

 should be introduced for at least six months after the termination of 

 the outbreak. The disinfection must have been equally thorough. 



There are often conditions which make it necessary in certain 

 kinds of .business to immediately introduce fresh pigs upon a place 

 which has been infected with hog cholera. In such cases, the de- 

 struction of all remaining animals and the thorough disinfection of 

 the premises are the only things to be relied upon to prevent a fresh 

 outbreak. 



After all this trouble has been taken, there is still remaining the 

 danger of a fresh introduction of the disease, and we would there- 

 fore again call attention to the rules for prevention which are given 

 above. These, after all, must be considered as most important. It 

 is much easier to keep the disease away than to eradicate it after 

 it has been introduced, without great loss of time and money. We 

 would also suggest that in those regions where the danger from hog 

 cholera epizootics is always present, the methods of keeping hogs be 

 simplified in such a way that disinfection may be practiced with- 

 out too much labor and uncertainty as to the results. It is only 

 necessary to visit a few farms to be convinced of the difficulty that 

 may be met with in endeavoring to eradicate the disease. The hogs 

 are allowed to stray into the most out-of-the-way places when sick, 

 instead of being kept in inclosures of definite form and size, which 

 are readily accessible. The poison is thus scattered in such a way 

 as to make disinfection impossible. It is certainly not necessary in 

 raising pigs to allow them to stray into arbors, behind hedges, hide 

 themselves under barns and out-houses. In some farms which we 

 have visited, and which were said to be affected with hog diseases 

 most of the year, there seemed to be no places about the house or 

 garden where pigs did not go. Under such circumstances disin- 

 fection is quite impossible. The pens and other wooden struct- 

 ures, fences, etc. , are also apt to be in a very dilapidated condition, 

 so that cleaning is very much complicated. Even under such circum- 

 stances the germs will finally perish without disinfection if enough 



