460 DISEASES OF SWINE 



to carry back with you on your shoes some of the germs of the 

 disease and scatter them in your own hog lot, with the result that 

 hog-cholera will later occur. 



The danger from this source is aptly emphasized by Dr. 

 Balcher, of Newcastle, Indiana, who, in a recent speech before a 

 veterinary gathering, sums the danger up in this manner: 



"Don't allow your hired man even to go and visit your neigh- 

 bor's hired girl unless he takes off his shoes before going in and 

 washes and disinfects his feet before coming away." 



The results which followed the moving of the treated and un- 

 treated hogs to the farm where the disease existed illustrates two 

 facts of importance about hog-cholera: 



In the first place, it shows us that we absolutely cannot bring 

 unprotected healthy hogs into a diseased feed lot without losing 

 the most of them from the disease. 



On the other hand, animals that have received the double 

 method of treatment can be moved to a feed lot and placed in 

 the same pens and fed out of the same troughs with the diseased 

 animals and they will not take the disease. This is of enormous 

 importance when we are considering the bringing in of any new 

 stock. Frequently after an outbreak of cholera has cleaned out a 

 drove of hogs it is desired to bring in other swine to replace those 

 that have been lost. This is especially hkely to be the case where 

 cattle are fed as well as hogs. A herd of cattle can hardly be grain 

 fed with profit unless a drove of hogs are kept in the same feed lot. 



If we bring in untreated animals in this way and place them 

 in the lots where other hogs have recently died, the result will 

 almost invariably be further loss, as the new animals will get the 

 disease as a result of taking in with the air they breathe and the 

 food they eat the virus which has been left in the feed lots by the 

 former herd. 



On the other hand, if we first have the newly purchased animals 

 treated by the double method and then bring them in we can rest 

 assured that no bad results will follow. If the animals be properly 

 treated with a reliable serum and an active virus they will have an 

 absolute protection against the disease, and it would be impossible 

 to cause cholera in them even if we were to inject enormous doses 

 of pure hog-cholera virus into their bodies. 



