Gastro- Enteritis in Calves. 153 



and the early abundance of the germ in the blood, suggest that 

 the microbe traverses the umbilical vein to the liver, and finding 

 a congenial home in the blood is quickly distributed through the 

 ■entire body. 



Prevention must be based mainly on the destruction and exclu- 

 sion of the microbe, and the fortifying of the system of the calf. 

 The general measures mentioned under white scour are still 

 applicable. The thorough disinfection of the stable by mercuric 

 ■chloride has not given us uniformly satisfactory results, even 

 when the building has been kept apparently almost immaculately 

 clean. The microbe hidden away in the intestinal contents of 

 the dam, still mixes with the stable dust, litter, etc., and infects 

 as before. A more effective method is to remove the cow to a pure 

 (new or disinfected) stable for a week or ten days before calving, 

 and then turn her into a third pure stable or field for parturition. 

 The second and third stable, like the first, must be thoroughly 

 •disinfected at short intervals. Parturition in a clean pasture, if 

 weather permits, is the preferable course. 



When the disease has entered a herd, the precautions should 

 -not stop with the attempt to secure an aseptic parturition. 

 Nocard prescribes as follows to secure antisepsis of parturition 

 and of the offspring : 



' ' Cows ready to calve should be provided with dry and clean 

 bedding until after the birth of the calf." 



' ' As soon as labor sets in, the anus, vulva and perineum should 

 be cleaned with a tepid solution of lysol in rain water : 20 

 grammes of lysol to each litre of water. The vagina should also 

 be cleansed by injecting, with a large syringe, a great quantity 

 of the same solution tepid." 



' ' As far as possible, the calf should be received on a clean 

 •cloth, or on thick, fresh bedding, not soiled by urine or faeces." 



' ' The cord should be tied immediately after birth with a liga- 

 ture kept in a lysol solution, and the cord amputated below the 

 ligature. ' ' 



' ' The stump of the cord and the umbilicus should be washed 

 with the following solution : 



Rainwater 1 litre 



Iodine crystals 2 grammes 



Potassium iodide 2 grammes." 



