524 DISEASES OF SWINE 



front knees and push themselves around in this kneehng position 

 for several minutes or even longer. 



Paralysis usually develops about the second or fourth day. 

 The animal is now quiet. Tt lies in the litter and refuses to move. 

 Death follows in a short time. 



If a postmortem examination be made of a hog that has died 

 of rabies but little information is gained. The internal organs are 

 but little changed in appearance. In the stomach the indigestible 

 foreign objects may be found. The spleen and liver may be 

 slightly enlarged and discolored, but there is nothing diagnostic to 

 be found. If the brain and cord are removed the surface of these 

 organs may be found to be somewhat congested and watery in 

 appearance, but there is nothing distinctive about the findings. 



The only method by which a positive diagnosis can be made 

 is to send the brain to some laboratory for examination under the 

 microscope. With proper staining of the tissues and a powerful 

 microscope certain diagnostic changes are seen in these tissues. 

 There is a marked congestion of certain parts of the brain and the 

 appearance of certain characteristic abnormal structures which 

 are known as Negri bodies. These are so called in honor of Prof. 

 Negri, of Italy, who first saw and described them. By some they are 

 believed to be a form of germ which is the real cause of the disease. 



Treatment. — There is absolutely no treatment of value for 

 rabies in the hog, with the possible exception of the use of quinin 

 in enormous doses. In highly valuable pure-bred hogs it might 

 be worth while to try the injection of quinin in large doses, 

 giving it by deep intramuscular injection. Extreme care must 

 be exercised in handling the sick hog to see that the man who 

 is giving the treatment be not attacked and bitten. The danger 

 is so great that it would seem advisable rather to kill the hog than 

 to attempt treatment. 



Preventive treatment consists in keeping dogs, and especially 

 stray ones, out of the feed lots. Proper muzzling of all dogs would 

 also be a big step in the prevention of the disease, not only in 

 hogs, but in dogs and man as well. By strict enforcement of muz- 

 zling ordinances in England rabies has been almost entirely wiped 

 out in that country. In America, owing to the carelessness in 

 this regard, the disease is constantly on the increase. 



