542 BLAOKLEO OB ANTHRAX.. 



BLACK-LEG OR ANTHRAX. 



How to Prevent this Fatal Disease: Anthrax or Black-leg is 

 now known to be due to a germ or living spore that finds its way into 

 the system of healthy young animals, and once in, breeds so fast as 

 to cause death within a very few days, sometimes hours. Real 

 Anthrax, or Splenetic Fever is due to a germ slightly different from 

 the "Black-leg" germ but otherwise the diseases are similar and need 

 to be treated alike. The great French physician and chemist, Louis 

 Pasteur, discovered this germ and also discovered how to render its 

 attacks nearly harmless. The disease attacks most often cattle, next 

 sheep, then horses or mules, goats and hogs. Sometimes man takes 

 it, for it is very contagious. Where it once gets a start animals die off 

 very fast. In one season, in 4 months, 970 animals died in 5 counties 

 in Illinois. In New Jersey 222 died in one county in one month. 



When an animal once has genuine Anthrax it is always fatal; 

 the only thing to do is to either burn the carcass at once or bury it 

 so deep that even worms can't find it Bury it only a few feet and the 

 carcass will infect the neighborhood for 9 or 10 years. The fodder 

 that grows over its grave will carry the disease. 



(Symptoms: In the most acute stage the animal dies at once as 

 from apoplexy, but usually it shows a high fever; dull eyes; great 

 weakness; stops feeding; sometimes trembles. Later, uneasiness 

 appears, spasms, kicking and pawing; hard breathing; mouth and 

 nostrils open; rectum and nose and mouth become bluish; animals 

 moan and discharge bloody offal. Sometimes swellings appear. 



Treatment*- When the animal has Anthrax or Black leg kill it 

 at once and burn it or bury it deep, very deep, and at once inoculate 

 all the rest of the herd unless they have been inoculated within two 

 years. 



Preventive: Slack-leg can be prevented by vaccination just as 

 easily and as surely as Small-pox in children can. In France vaccin- 

 ation reduced the average death rate from Black-leg from 10 in 100, 

 to 1 in 200; in Germany from 5 in 100 to less than 1 in 500; in 

 Switzerland they had even better results. 



How it is Done: Two injections of virus must be made ten 

 days apart. The first of very weak, the second with a stronger 

 virus. The virus can be bought already for use with syringe for 

 injection. 



The injections are made either on the side of the tail, or behind 

 the ear, or in the shoulder The animal need not quit work, the cow 

 may be milked and the milk used right along. The operation is easy 

 ana harmless. The cost is from 10 to 16 cents a dose, and the quantity 

 used varies with the different shipments of virus. Each package con- 

 tains the proper amount for a dose of that virus. It varies from 4 to 

 20 drops. 



A Home Method Without Virus: If Black- leg is suspected and 

 virus cannot be obtained, an older method of setoning the dewlap is 

 advisable and often arrests the disease at the outset and prevents it. 

 It consists in passing a seton needle crosswise through the dewlap 



