494 Veterinary Obstetrics 



If practicable, different persons should handle the infected and 

 the presumably non-infected animals, and they should not pass 

 from the infected to the non-infected stables. 



When infectious abortion exists in a neighborhood, each person 

 or animal approaching a stable where pregnant mares are kept 

 should be regarded as suspicious and treated accordingly. Geld- 

 ings, and mares not used for breeding, may serve as bearers of 

 the disease from diseased to pregnant mares. Indeed, it is 

 probable that the bacteria of the malady will live for a time in 

 the vulva and vagina of a mare which has not been bred. Though 

 such an animal does not become visibly diseased, she may never- 

 theless be a very dangerous bearer of the maladj' to pregnant 

 mares, and such danger should accordingly be avoided. 



Breeding should be suspended during an outbreak of contagious 

 abortion. If a recently aborted mare is bred, and the stallion is 

 then used to serve a mare from a stable in which there are healthy 

 pregnant mares, the infection may first be transferred, through 

 the penis of the stallion, from the diseased mare to the vagina of 

 the healthy one and by her carried to healthy pregnant mares. 



When the disease becomes widely prevalent in an area, all 

 breeding animals might properly be regarded as suspicious. If 

 such a view is taken, each mare may be regarded as possibly in- 

 fected and, after permitting a stallion to serve her, the penis and 

 surrounding parts of the male should at once be disinfected 

 against a possible transmission of the disease to the next mare 

 with which he copulates, and the carrying of the malady by her 

 to healthy pregnant mares. 



In the infectious abortion of cows, with which we shall deal in 

 the succeeding section, some veterinarians have recorded appar- 

 ently good results in the eradication of the disease by subcu- 

 taneous medication with carbolic acid ; others have attempted, 

 with apparently good results, the production of serum immunity. 



If the abortion breaks out somewhat early during gestation, 

 it may be essential to determine as positively as possible which 

 mares are pregnant and which are not, and for this reason it may 

 become necessary to carefully examine each mare per rectum, in 

 doing which the veterinarian should guard against danger to the 

 fetus, from the manipulation, as well as against the transmission 

 of the disease from one mare to another through the medium of 

 his soiled hands or clothing. Consequently it would be well for 



