232 DISEASES OF SWINE 



hogs could conveniently clean up on short notice, and, as a result, 

 within a few hours buzzards began to circle in the air over the 

 pasture, and it was not long before a good-sized flock of these birds 

 had been attracted from the cholera farms further southward. 

 The buzzards remained in the pasture and a nearby woods for sev- 

 eral days, aiding in disposing of the feast. 



Within two weeks the hogs on this farm and also on a couple of 

 adjoining farms, which were circled over by the buzzards in going 

 to and from the woods, showed signs of disease, and within another 

 week a full-fledged outbreak of hog-cholera was in full swing in this 

 district. The disease had unquestionably been brought up from 

 the cholera district many miles further south by the hungry buz- 

 zards. Proper disposal of these carcasses by burning would have 

 prevented this outbreak and saved a loss of several thousand 

 dollars to the community. It would certainly have been a paying 

 investment for the neighbors of this farmer if they had all com- 

 bined and aided in the proper burning of the dead carcasses. 



In western Missouri I obtained the history of a severe outbreak 

 of cholera which swept over an entire township, which was spread 

 largely by leaving the dead animals exposed to attack by buzzards. 

 The feeder upon whose farm this outbreak got its start brought in 

 a carload of hogs from Arkansas and placed them on his feed lots, 

 which had been cholera infected the previous summer. Within a 

 month after these hogs had been placed in the lots they began to 

 die. Symptoms during life and postmortem findings pointed un- 

 questionably to cholera, the germs of which had evidently lived 

 through the winter and remained in the feed lots sufficiently active 

 to again attack healthy animals. 



At about the same time that the animals began to die there 

 was an outbreak of typhoid fever in this farmer's family, and the 

 dead animals were, of necessity, neglected. The care of the sick 

 at the house, together with such of the farm work as could be 

 attended to, took all the man's time. He simply left the hogs 

 to take care of themselves and trusted to luck. 



As a result, the pastures were soon filled with decomposing and 

 rotting dead hogs. As the pasture was located in a field through 

 which a running stream found its way, several of the dead animals 

 were left to rot in the stream, and were carried down its course by 



