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10 MISCELLANEOUS PUB. 25, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
OCTOBER 
Last call of season for dipping livestock. 
Learn about trichinosis and reasons for cooking 
pork well. 
Did you dip your livestock last month? If not, do it now, before 
cold weather. If sheep scab is dormant in your flock it will make 
trouble later. Consult Farmers’ Bulletin No. 713 (11). Clean up 
chicken lice. 
Beware of trichinosis. Now is the time for early fall slaughtering 
of pigs. Every year pigs are killed on the farm and made into sau- 
sage and other products. Every 
year the incautious farmer’s wife 
tastes the raw sausage to see 
whether the seasoning is right and 
the farmer’s family or friends eat 
some of the sausage or other pork 
products raw. And every year 
there are a number of deaths from 
trichinosis as a result of this pro- 
ceeding. The disease is caused by 
very small worms known as tri- 
chinae. (Fig. 17.) 
Most of our trichinosis arises 
from farm slaughtering of pigs and 
Fic. 17—A magnified portion of raw pork in- the eating of raw sausage from 
fested with trichinae a 9 
small, uninspected establishments. 
Trichinosis appears to cause swine very little trouble or discomfort, 
but it is a very painful disease in man and is frequently fatal. There 
is no dependable cure or treatment. Cook pork and pork products 
well and thoroughly, and avoid eating them raw. 
When nature supplies your chickens and turkeys with ‘‘free”’ 
feed in the form of earthworms, snails, slugs, and insects, there may 
be a cost to reckon with later. Many parasitic worms use these 
other small animals as intermediate hosts or as carriers of some sort 
in getting from one bird to another. Thus earthworms sometimes 
transmit gapeworms to chicks; slugs and snails transmit tapeworms 
and nematodes (the roundworm croup). to chickens and turkeys. 
These small animals swallow worm eggs in the droppings or im con- 
taminated soil, and carry the eggs or young worms to the bird that 
eats the earthworm, slug, snail, or insect. It is sometimes necessary 
to combat these intermediate hosts in order to control certain para- 
sit.c worms. The Bureau of Animal Industry will identify parasitic 
worms and furnish any available information in regard to life his- 
tories and control measures. Many life histories are not yet known, 
and control measures must await the results of scientific investiga- 
tions such as those on which our known effective control measures 
are based. 
