no DISEASES OF SWINE 



or less well-marked resistance to the disease, and will not easily 

 succumb to an attack by cholera germs if in good condition. Many 

 farmers feed such an unbalanced ration, however, that the digestive 

 tract of the animal becomes so deranged and the vitality so 

 lowered that the animal readily falls a victim to the attack of the 

 hog-cholera virus when it is introduced into the feed lots in some 

 manner. 



One of the best examples of an unbalanced ration, and also 

 one of the most common, is the use of an exclusive corn diet. Many 

 herds have been attacked by cholera within a few weeks after being 

 placed upon a forced diet of corn, and in many instances the epi- 

 demic has been found to markedly decrease in severity when the 

 food was changed. 



An exclusive diet of this nature, confined to any one class of 

 food substances, invariably produces indigestion, and this so alters 

 the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines that they are 

 readily attacked by the hog-cholera virus. As we will find later 

 on, the intestine is the most common point of entrance by this virus, 

 and, if we are to prevent its successful lodgment there, we must 

 use care to see that the digestive apparatus is kept right. 



These are the facts which explain the statement so often heard 

 in the hog-raising belt that the animals were all right until they 

 commenced to feed corn, and then in a few weeks cholera broke 

 out. I have heard this statement made hundreds of times by 

 farmers whose herds had been attacked by cholera, and many of 

 them believe that the corn itself contains some sort of germ which 

 produces the disease. This is not the case. It is not the corn 

 which is at fault, but the manner in which it is fed. 



(11) Disposal of Dead Animals. — Herein lies one of the most 

 important dangers in the spread of hog-cholera epidemics. If dead 

 animals on the farms were all properly disposed of by burning 

 witliin twelve hours after death there would be a most remarkable 

 falling off in the number of hog-cholera cases within twelve months. 

 More cholera is spread through neglect in this one matter than any 

 other of the many factors responsible for cholera outbreaks and 

 their spread. 



It is all too frequently found to be the custom when any animal 

 dies on the farm, be it hog, sheep, horse, cow, or what not, that it 



