144 SWINE DISEASES 



perature. These symptoms, in the order mentioned, 

 continue for four to six weeks, and the affected animal 

 apparently recovers. Diagnosis of trichinosis may be 

 possible clinically, but the absolute diagnosis depends 

 upon a miscroscopic detection of the parasite. 



Treatment. Medicinal treatment may be of some 

 value in eliminating the adults from the intestine, but 

 the disease is rarely diagnosed before death. The 

 muscular form of the disease is not relieved by treatment. 

 Prophylactic measures, such as general sanitation and 

 eradication of rats, should be instituted. 



Cysticercosis (Measles) 



Cysticercosis is a condition due to the invasion and 

 developemnt of the cystic form of a tapeworm. This 

 condition prevails more or less in the swine of practically 

 all countries. Cysticercosis in the muscular tissue of 

 swine is due to the cystic form of the Tsenia solium; the 

 cystic form of this parasite being designated Cysticercus 

 cellulosse. 



Etiology. The life cycle of the Tsenia solium is as 

 follows. The ova of the adult, which resides in the 

 intestinal tract of man, is eliminated in the feces. Swine 

 eat the contaminated feces and the digestive juices 

 dissolve the shell of the tapeworm ova and liberate a 

 six-hooked embryo. The embryos bore through the walls 

 of the stomach, some of them entering the blood vessels, 

 and are thus distributed by migration and the circulation 

 of the blood to all parts of the body. Those depositing 

 elsewhere than in the muscular tissue do not as a rule 

 develop. The development of the parasite is rather 

 slow. The embryo assumes the form of a cyst and in 

 twenty days' time is about the size of an ordinary pin- 

 head. By this time the head of the future tapeworm is 

 visible as a mere point. About two months after the 

 embryo lodges in the muscle it has attained the size of a 

 small pea, and in three months the embryo has matured, 

 as is evidenced by the presence of sucker disks and a 

 rostellum of booklets on the head of the future tapeworm. 



