340 SWINE PRACTICE 



Etiology. — Eabies is caused by a virus, but the exact nature of this 

 virus has not been determined more than that it is filtrable. Recently 

 it has been successfully cultivated. 



Source and manner of infection. — The usual source of rabies in 

 swine is from an infected animal, usually a dog. Eabid dogs meander- 

 ing through the country occasionally attack swine, biting and thus 

 infecting them. 



Lesions. — Gross lesions are absent in swine that have died of rabies. 

 Foreign substances may be found in tlie stomach, but swine have a 

 habit of consuming almost anything and therefore foreign bodies in 

 Ihe stomach have little significance. Microscopically, Negri bodies are 

 found in the cells of the amnion horn, and also in the cells of the cere- 

 bellar cortex. These bodies are the same in swine as in other animals. 



Symptoms. — Affected swine usually become excitable and show 

 sexual desire, and they may become vicious and attack other animals 

 or man. The.y have a depraved appetite, or there may be inappetance. 

 These symptoms will become more aggravated for two or three days, 

 then the animal becomes depressed and paralysis of various groups 

 of muscles appears. Tlie affected animals may be depressed from the 

 beginning, show more or less evidence of paralysis, and finally assume 

 a comatose state prior to death. 



Diagnosis. — Diagnosis cannot be made positive by clinical examina- 

 tion, although if the histoi'y shows contact with a rabid animal from 

 ten days to four weeks before the symptoms appeared one could diag- 

 nose the case as suspected rabies. A positive diagnosis can be made 

 only by the finding of Negri bodies by microscopic examination, or 

 tlie reproduction of the disease by inoculation of a laboratory animal 

 with a small quantity of the brain tissue of the animal in question. 



Treatment. — Curative treatment has always been considered futile. 

 Recently the use of quinine has, according to reports, given good re- 

 si:jlts in cases of rabies in dogs. Other investigators have failed to 

 obtain beneficial results from the use of quinine in experimentally in- 

 Ofiulated cases of rabies. If valuable animals are known to have been 

 bitten by a rabid dog it may be given the Pasteur treatment and thus 

 the development of the disease prevented. 



Foot and Mouth Disease (Aphthae Epizooticae) 



This is an acute, infectious, transmissible disease, primarily affect- 

 ing cattle and sheep. It also affects hogs, goats, more -rarely horses, 

 dogs and other animals. 



This disease is quite prevalent in some European countries and 



