222 VETERINARY HYGIENE 



often the only opportunity there is to get a place clean; it is well 

 then to make the most of it. Following the preliminary cleansing 

 the premises and equipment may be disinfected. For this pur- 

 pose there is nothing to equal " chloride of lime " (bleaching 

 powder). 



The floor, walls, food-troughs, bed-platforms, &c., should be 

 scrubbed with a solution of not less than 10 per cent, strength 

 (made with fresh bleaching powder) and then be left for twenty- 

 four hours, after which the entire place should be thoroughly 

 scrubbed out to get rid of all residue. The doors and windows 

 must then be left open to get the place dry, after which fresh 

 animals may be admitted with safety. If, however, the cleansing 

 and disinfection has been improperly carried out or not supervised 

 by a properly trained person, it would be unsafe to admit pigs to 

 the premises for a fortnight or three weeks. 



The careless use of disinfectants about animal houses must 

 be guarded against. The author had to deal with an outbreak of 

 swine fever in a particularly foul establishment, and found that 

 the owner had spread " chloride of lime " over the yard to which his 

 fowls had access. The birds drank from the pools of water (or 

 rather liquid filth) into which the powder had been thrown and 

 more than half his stock died. 



SWINE ERYSIPELAS. One is generally led to believe that this 

 disease thrives only under filthy conditions. This may in part be 

 true, but repeatedly it is encountered in piggeries where no trouble 

 is spared to keep the place clean. In the present state of our 

 knowledge concerning the disease we should make every endeavour 

 to cleanse and disinfect the piggery once the disease appears. The 

 procedure should be the same as that advocated for swine fever, 

 again paying particular attention to the floor. If there are stagnant 

 pools of dirty water in any part of the yard to which the animals 

 may get access, or through which attendants may walk, these should 

 be filled up and better drainage arranged for. If the piggery is dark 

 and damp, then light and air must be admitted. If the floor is 

 uneven and pitted with holes it should be relaid or levelled and 

 washed over with cement. Corners and angles should be filled in 

 with a fillet of cement. As with many other diseases it is probably 

 more a question of cleanliness than of disinfection. 



The actual disinfection of the floor, troughs, &c., may be done 

 with a solution of bleaching powder, as described above, or by 

 watering freely with one part of strong commercial sulphuric acid 

 to three of water. The usual care must be taken to see that all 

 crevices and interstices between the bricks of the floor are well 



