276 DISEASES OF SWINE 



others were commencing to develop severe scours. The diagnosis 

 was too plain to be mistaken for anything else. The tramp pig 

 had died of cholera, and the home animals had been most thor- 

 oughly infected by being in the same feed lot with him, and, 

 finally, by eating of the dead carcass. 



So thoroughly widespread was the disease in the herd that only 

 a Uttle over 40 per cent, of the animals were salable when the 

 shipment reached the market. The disease appeared to be espe- 

 cially severe in type, and one or two of the animals which had been 

 cut open after death were described as having a very much in- 

 flamed appearance of the internal organs. The disease had evi- 

 dently been of the acute severe type. The enormous loss result- 

 ing from this outbreak had so discouraged this man with the hog- 

 raising industry that at the time I visited his farm, several months 

 later, he had only three or four hogs on the place, and he was 

 apparently firmly established in his resolution never again to risk 

 costly grain and other food in such an uncertain animal as the hog. 



There are several very profitable points that we may learn from 

 this man's costly experience. 



First of all, it warns us against the danger of allowing stray 

 animals of any sort, and especially stray pigs, to come upon our 

 premises. We should keep our road fences so repaired and have 

 them so constructed that it will be impossible for stray pigs to get 

 into our fields. In addition to this, it is also an excellent plan to 

 keep our hog pastures so located that the animals do not come in 

 close range of any public highway. 



This outbreak also teaches a lesson in the danger which is 

 associated with adding new hogs to our herd, no matter from what 

 source they may come, unless we first keep them under daily care 

 in proper quarantine quarters for a period of at least three weeks, 

 and preferably for a period of thirty days. Had this been done in 

 this case the animal would have developed cholera and died long 

 before the quarantine period was over, and the animals in the 

 regular herd would not have been subjected to exposure and 

 infection. 



Finally, this attack shows the absolute danger of allowing your 

 hogs to eat the dead carcass of any other animal that may die, no 

 matter what its source may be. In this case the eating of the dead 



