CHAPTER XXVII 

 HOG CHOLERA AND SERUM 



During the last few years we have made it a practice to keep 

 the entire herd immune by the simultaneous treatment. In the 

 summer of 1913 we immunized 219 pigs at one time, using the sim- 

 ultaneous treatment, and the loss was about two per cent. This 

 leads me to believe that our government authorities and others who 

 have been instrumental in working out the simultaneous serum 

 treatment, have in it the long-sought-for specific treatment for the 

 prevention of hog cholera. 



I am convinced, however that many have not fully understood 

 this method of hog cholera treatment, and as I had been much 

 attracted to and pleased with an article by J. L. Thatcher, I re- 

 quested Mr. Thatcher to furnish a serum article for this book, and 

 take great pleasure in giving him full credit for the excellent 

 service he has rendered swine breeders by his contribution to hog 

 cholera literature. Mr. Thatcher's article which follows, is com- 

 mended to the thoughtful attention of every reader of this book, 

 with the -hope that the serum treatment will be better understood 

 and more generally followed. I firmly believe that if his sug- 

 gestions were properly carried out in time we could stamp out this 

 dread disease: 



In accepting the invitation of the author of this book to write on hog 

 cholera and its prevention by the serum-simultaneous method of treatment, 

 I did so with the idea that I could talk as one breeder to another, and 

 with the hope that what may be said may lead) to a more active and 

 persistent campaign against a disease that, judging by the results attained 

 at lowana Farms, and elsewhere where the treatment has been given a 

 fair and intelligent trial, can be prevented and ultimately wiped out. 



Apart from the purely elementary scientific statements that are made 

 in order to give a clearer understanding of the nature of hog cholera 

 as a disease, of what is meant by immunity, and of the process followed 

 in obtaining serum, the statements made and the conclusions drawn are 

 based entirely upon our work with registered swine. They show what 

 we have accomplished and the policy we have permanently adopted in 

 preventing the disease. The results have been very gratifying to us, and 

 have enabled us to prevent the enormous loss which almost inevitably 

 follows when a hog cholera epidemic strikes . a herd. If our experience, 

 with the results attained and the conclusions drawn, can be of benefit 

 to the swine breeders of the country, we are glad to make known what 

 we have done, and to do our part towards stamping out a disease that 

 is annually causing the loss of tens of millions of dollars throughout 

 the United States. 



The prevention of hog cholera, and through its prevention the control 

 and ultimate eradication of the disease, is the most urgent and financially 

 vital problem which confronts swine breeders and farmers throughout 

 the entire country today. 



Losses Due to Disease. Now when we consider that fully 90 per cent, 

 of the hogs that die from disease die from hog cholera, we can readily 

 gain some idea of the magnitude of the losses we are annually sustaining 

 through this disease alone, and of the imperative need for a nation-wide 



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