254 DISEASES OF SWINE 



Here they were unloaded into the pens of a public stock-yard, fed^ 

 watered, and reloaded. At this time there was a severe outbreak 

 of cholera raging in the district immediately surrounding the city 

 where this feeding and watering were done. Large numbers of 

 cholera hogs on the way to market had passed through these yards 

 during the previous week, and, without question, the pens were 

 thoroughly infected with hog-cholera virus. 



Within ten days after arrival of the hogs upon the farm in 

 Iowa they began to show signs of sickness. Diarrhea, cough, un- 

 wilhngness to move about, weakness of the hind limbs, bright red 

 blotches on the skin, staggering, and death occurring within about 

 three to five days after the onset of the attack, made the diagnosis 

 very clear. Any doubt about the matter was at once settled 

 when a postmortem examination was made, and showed the pres- 

 ence of numerous dark-red spots beneath the outer coat of the 

 bowels, small red spots in the kidneys, lungs, and lymph-glands, 

 and beginning ulcer formation in the bowels. Without doubt the 

 outbreak was one of cholera. Rapid spread of the disease through 

 the herd and to herds on the surrounding farms offered further 

 evidence that the disease was hog-cholera. 



Now these hogs were perfectly well when they left the feed lots 

 in Arkansas, and had not been exposed to any infection there. 

 There is, of course, a possible chance that the cars in which they 

 were loaded may have been infected, but it seems much more likely 

 that the infection was picked up in the pubUc stock-yards in 

 Missouri, which were unquestionably diseased by the passage 

 through them of large numbers of cholera-infected animals without 

 any effort being made to keep them free from infection. 



The practice of allowing cholera-infected hogs to be handled 

 in the same pens and loaded over the same chutes with healthy 

 animals is a most important element in the spreading of the 

 disease, especially on large farms where hogs are frequently shipped 

 in for feeding purposes. Some provision should be made for regu- 

 lating this shipping in such a manner that separate pens should be 

 used for outgoing and incoming animals, and all pens should be 

 thoroughly disinfected after each shipment passes through, and 

 especially so if there is any possibihty of the animals having 

 cholera or of their having been exposed to the disease. 



