DISEASES OF SWINE 471 



sanitary board. These districts should be small enough to permit the 

 deputy to exercise close watch over them. 



4. The deputy State veterinarian should keep a supply of serum 

 on hand, so that prompt action may be taken when infection ap- 

 pears. 



5. Hog raisers generally throughout the State should be in- 

 formed when the serum is available for distribution, and if necessary 

 compulsory notification of the presence of disease in a herd should be 

 imposed. 



6. Upon notification to the State live-stock sanitary board or 

 State veterinarian that hog cholera has appeared in a certain neigh- 

 borhood, the diseased herd or herds should be immediately quaran- 

 tined, the premises disinfected as thoroughly as possible, and all hogs 

 on the farm which have been exposed or which are not visibly fil 

 should be treated with serum alone. All hogs on the farm which 

 have not been exposed should be treated by the simultaneous method, 

 and of course the prompt removal of dead animals should be en- 

 forced. At the same time all hogs on surrounding farms should be 

 treated by the simultaneous method. 



Prompt action of this kind should result in confining the disease 

 to the first herd where disease appeared, though we must admit the 

 possibility of infection being carried beyond the vaccinated belt by 

 birds. If this should occur, the procedure should be the same as in 

 the first case of disease, though the probability of dissemination by 

 birds will not be great, owing to the comparatively small size of the 

 infected area. With a well-organized live-stock sanitary board and 

 an efficient corps of deputies throughout the State, there seems to be 

 no reason why hog cholera should not be kept well under control and 

 perhaps in time eradicated by proceeding in the way indicated. By 

 starting the work in early spring or summer the task would prob- 

 ably be much simplified and the cost reduced to a minimum. 



Aside from the eradication of hog cholera, it seems that an im- 

 portant saving to swine breeders and to the hog industry in general 

 can be accomplished through the protective inoculation of purebred 

 hogs. Some of these hogs represent years of patient effort on the 

 part of breeders, and their loss is a loss to the swine industry in gen- 

 eral, which depends for its success in great measure upon the develop- 

 ment and preservation of the superior characters possessed by these 

 purebred animals. There is no doubt that the hog raisers would 

 gladly co-operate with the State authorities and that as a rule any 

 outbreak of disease would be promptly reported, as the farmer would 

 have everything to gain and nothing to lose by so doing. (B. A. I. 

 25th A. R.) 



Other Means for Prevention of Hog Cholera. All that is neces- 

 sary to prevent hog cholera is to keep the germ of the disease away 

 from the herd. It has been shown that in the vast majority of cases 

 this germ is transported mechanically, in the bodies of sick hogs and 

 on the feet of men or animals, including birds. It thus follows that 

 the chance of an outbreak of hog cholera will be greatly lessened, if 

 not completely avoided, if a herd is protected from these carriers of 



