OBSTETRICS 261 



own females as far as possible and purchase young males that 

 have not been used. 



Management of an aborting herd. — Abortion should not be 

 allowed to occur in the herd stable if it can be avoided. The 

 calf and afterbirth should be buried deeply or, better still, 

 burned. Floors and partitions and other contaminated surfaces 

 should be carefully cleaned and disinfected. In case the calf is 

 mature enough to survive, its manure should be treated as 

 though it were certainly infectious. 



Some outbreaks of what seems to be infectious abortion are 

 apparently gotten rid of very easily under a treatment which 

 to an experienced veterinarian or bacteriologist would be 

 absurd; but as a rule very painstaking work, long continued, 

 is essential to any assurance of success. An owner should not 

 undertake the treatment of a considerable number of animals 

 unless they are sufficiently valuable to make it worth while, and 

 he realizes that he has a hard task ahead of him. 



Sell for slaughter females that have ever been bred and which 

 are not valuable enough to justify the additional work and 

 expense of treatment. Cows that have aborted should be sold 

 for slaughter only; but it is not usually advisable to sell good 

 cows merely because they have aborted. 



Medical treatment is now generally discarded as ineffective. 

 There is no reliable cure. Various vaccines and serums are on 

 the market and are well advertised; but they are of doubtful 

 value. There is a living virus vaccine which appears capable 

 of harm by dissemination of the disease. There is also a killed 

 culture vaccine which appears to have little protective value. 

 Neither is advised as yet as a preventive of abortion. 



It frequently happens in affected herds that valuable cows 

 abort and then remain sterile. Others are infected and remain 

 sterile without known abortion. 



Many of these choice cows can be cured of their sterility by 

 expert veterinary treatment. 



"When a cow has aborted well along in pregnancy, the after- 

 birth should be removed as soon as it will come away easily. 

 Cows that have aborted should not be bred until the discharge 

 has ceased for at least a month and the generative organs are 

 normal again. 



Males should be used with caution. For cows that have never 

 aborted, use a bull that has had no chance for infection, the 



