220 SWINE PRACTICE 



value, precipitated calcium pliosphate is highly recommended by 

 some, and calcium chlorate may be found serviceable. Preventive 

 measures, as proper feeding and care, practically insure against the 

 occurrence of this disease "in swine. 



SCOUR IN PIGS 



Pig scour is a serious menace to the swine industry. The annual 

 loss from pig scour has been estimated at from seven to ten million 

 pigs in the United States. Many farmers have lost ten to twenty- 

 five per cent of their pig crop for several successive years from pig 

 scour. Farms have been observed in which two hundred to two 

 hundred and fifty pigs have died in one season from pig scour out of 

 a total pig crop of not to exceed three hundred. The disease has 

 been proportionately more prevalent in the centers of greatest hog 

 population. 



Pig scour usually occurs in relatively young pigs, the majority of 

 cases occurring within the first ten days, although the condition may 

 occur in six-weeks old pigs. 



Etiology. — There is apparently no single cause that is responsible 

 for the various cases of scours. Unfavorable surroundings, such as 

 damp, dark, and dingy hog houses, predipose to this condition. In 

 some instances, mammitis of the sow is a causative factor. Improper 

 foods, such as moldy or fermented slops, probably result in elimina- 

 tion of injurious substances in the mother's milk that will create m 

 the pigs digestive disturbances resulting in diarrhea. It is probable 

 also that intestinal parasites may be responsible for catarrhal en- 

 teritis and an associated diarrhea. Artificial feeding is likely to pro- 

 duce digestive derangement and diarrhea, and exposure to extreme 

 temperature variations must be considered as a causative factor, of 

 pig diarrhea. 



Infection is probably the most important cause of pig scour. No 

 specific bacterium has been isolated that is responsible for all of the 

 cases of infectious scour. The B.coli communis, B.suipestifer, B.sui- 

 septicus, B. paratyphoid A & B are the mierobian agents most com- 

 monly f(nind in these cases. The B.jiyocyaneus, and various pyogenic 

 micrococci are sometimes demonstrable in the discharges of affected 

 cases or in the lesions of carcasses of pigs dead of the malady. 



The rapid spread of the disease in a litter of pigs and the dissemi- 

 nation from litter to litter and from farm to farm is strongly indic- 

 ative of the infectious nature of pig scour. 



