88 SWINE PLAGUE 



yard or pen should be kept free from swine after the appear- 

 ance of the disease can, with safety, be shorter after swine 

 plague than after hog cholera. In any case several months 

 should elapse before the yards or pens are reoccupied. If the 

 disease appears, the well animals should be promptly separated 

 from the sick and placed in suitable pens or yards, protected 

 against subsequent infection, and given an abundance of 

 wholesome food and water. It is well to remove the sick 

 animals to other pens. The thorough disinfection of the 

 infected pens should be insisted upon before they are again 

 occupied. 



§ 74. Specific treatment. For a number of years 

 investigations were almost constantlj' under way in the United 

 States Bureau of Animal Industry, for the purpose of finding 

 some method by which the disease could be successfully and 

 specifically treated. Drugs and medicines have been tried, 

 preventive inoculations and injections of toxins have been 

 made. The serum therapy which has eiFected relief in certain 

 other diseases has been and is now being tested with some- 

 what favorable results, by a few European workers, yet we do 

 not see that a specific therapeutic agent has been demon- 

 strated. In view of this, it becomes necessary to appl}' with 

 renewed zeal our present knowledge of the nature of the 

 malady and endeavor to prevent its occurrence or reappear- 

 ance by keeping the animals under the best possible condi- 

 tions. Prevention of this disease is more promising than its 

 treatment. 



§ 75. The effect of swine-plague bacteria in rabbits. 

 In 1894, Smith and Moore described the appearance of the 

 effect of swine-plague bacteria in rabbits and also the effect of 

 resistance on the part of the rabbit on the form of the resulting 

 lesions. As this disease is caused by a bacterium belonging 

 to the septicemia hemorrhagica group, it seems desirable that 

 the results above referred to should be restated. The appended 

 paragraphs are taken from the report of these investigations. 



Among the forms of disease observed after the subcu- 



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