No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 559 



Hog Cholera. 



"While this State lias been comparatively free from hog 

 cholera and swine plague, diseases which resemble each other 

 so closely that only post-mortem examination and the use of 

 the microsco[)e can be relied upon with certainty to deter- 

 mine their individual character, — they are in other sections 

 of this country the cause of the loss of millions of dollars 

 every year to the farmers. 



The Bureau of Animal Industry, in charge of Dr. D. E. 

 Salmon, at Washington, has issued important bulletins, in 

 which it is stated that the symptoms of the two diseases and 

 their effect are quite similar, and that both are caused by 

 bacteria. They must, therefore, be met by preventing the 

 infection of the premises, the destruction of the germs 

 wherever they have found lodgement, the treatment of the 

 sick animals to reduce the fever, stopping the propagation 

 of the germs, and the careful disposition of the bodies of the 

 animals dying from the disease. The treatment of the two 

 diseases is essentially the same. 



Young animals are especially susceptible to the diseases, 

 the older ones seeming to have a greater power of resisting 

 infection. It is also believed that animals once slightly af- 

 fected, and recovered, are, to a large extent, immuned from 

 subsequent infection, while fresh animals placed in the same 

 pens are infected l)y the germs remaining from the original 

 cases. The germs are tenacious of life, and infection may 

 ^result from their presence in food or drink, or in the air. 

 After infection the disease develops in from four to twenty 

 days. In acute cases animals die suddenly, often before their 

 illness has been observed, but more often there is a longer 

 period in which to observe the progress of the disease. 



The usual symptoms are fever, shivering, torpidity, loss of 

 appetite, a temperature rising to 106" or 107° F., exhaust- 

 ing diarrhoea, an exudation of a thick secretion from the 

 eyes, quick, labored breathing, cough, a redness of the skin^ 

 a crusty eiiiption, and loss of strength and of tlesh until the 

 end. 



The indications of hog cholera by post-mortem examina- 

 tion are : — 



