54 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The proposed method of handling abortion and sterility is merely 

 repressive, however important. We do not hope thereby to eliminate 

 either abortion or the granular venereal disease from the herd, but 

 only that we shall be able, at a justifiable cost, to reduce the losses 

 from abortion and sterility. Accepting the infections of the genital 

 tract as permanent, any measures against them should have a similar 

 continuity and be accepted as one of the elements in the operation 

 of dairying. 



THE PRODUCTION OF SOUND HERDS. 



Abortion and sterility are not alone in reducing the efficiency in' 

 dairying and breeding herds. In many herds similar losses occur 

 from calf scours and pneumonia and from tuberculosis. These three 

 great dairy scourges cause their chief devastation in the young. 

 Scours and pneumonia destroy most of their victims during the first 

 few weeks after birth. Abortion and sterility play their greatest havoc 

 among cows and heifers 2 to 4 years old. Tuberculosis largely has 

 its origin through the food of the calf, or the heifer becomes affected 

 during her first years in the dairy. If cattle breeding and dairying 

 are to be placed upon a more secure basis, it is first of all essential to 

 maintain in health the new-born calves. 



Calf scours and pneumonia have been sufficiently investigated that 

 their nature is well enough known to undertake prevention with a 

 reasonable measure of confidence. A method has been pointed out 

 and its feasibility demonstrated whereby calves may be raised free 

 from tuberculosis in spite of tuberculous parents. The measures 

 advisable for the repression and prevention of these can be made to 

 answer in large measure for the control of abortion and sterility, and 

 any needed additions to the sanitary measures for the control of 

 abortion would add to the efficiency of the measures relating to the 

 other maladies. 



The maternity and calf stables of our larger dairies and more 

 important breeding herds constitute the fundamental source of the 

 chief losses amongst dairy cattle. It is a notable fact that in many 

 of our highest class, or highest classed, dairies the dairy stables are 

 extravagantly well built, while the maternity and calf barns are 

 disgraceful old ramshackles, more worthy of being called pest houses. 

 The control of dairy plagues must begin and be most exact with the 

 newborn calf when it is most vulnerable to disease, and in large 

 dairy and breeding establishments the proper handling of the cow 

 at the time of parturition and the care of the newborn calf should 

 have first place in the entire scheme. 



The infections causing calf scours and pneumonia, abortion and 

 sterility, and tuberculosis are so thoroughly disseminated that for 

 practical purposes, with some exceptions in relation to tuberculosis, 



