1909.] Report on Epizootic Abortion. 483 



Destruction of Virulent Material and Disinfection of Every- 

 thing Contaminated by it. — The immediate disinfection of the 

 virulent materials and contaminated objects is of great 

 importance, more especially as it appears that the natural 

 virus may remain active for a long time outside the body. 

 The soiled litter, dung, exudate, membranes, and foetus 

 should all be removed at once, preferably after they have 

 been treated with caustic lime. After removal they should 

 be soaked in paraffin and burned, or buried in a deep pit, 

 preferably the former. On no account should the foetus and 

 membranes be fed to pigs or dogs. When a foetus is aborted 

 alive, as sometimes happens, it seldom survives long, and 

 it is advisable to kill and destroy it, since it may excrete 

 abundance of virulent material from its intestines if allowed 

 to live. If, however, it be decided not to kill it, it should 

 immediately be isolated. The walls of the stall and the 

 floor should be washed or strewn thickly with caustic lime, 

 or drenched freely with boiling water. The temperature 

 necessary to kill the bacillus is not great, and this simple 

 method of disinfection should prove efficacious. Lastly, the 

 boots, clothing, and hands of attendants should be dis- 

 infected by making use of any reliable disinfectant, such as 

 a 3 or 4 per cent, solution of carbolic acid. 



Preventive Inoculation. — As regards the preventive 

 inoculation referred to above, a considerable number of 

 observations on the value of this method are now being 

 conducted on infected herds in different parts of the country, 

 but the value of the method cannot be estimated until a 

 relatively large number of the inoculated animals exposed 

 to natural infection either abort or give birth to calves at 

 full term. Should the results under the conditions of actual 

 practice bear out those already obtained in the laboratory, 

 stockowners will be in possession of a preventive method 

 which is perhaps the most valuable of all methods for dealing 

 with a disease of the nature of epizootic abortion. Such a 

 method would only be employed in herds in which infection 

 already exists, and the best way to make use of it would be, 

 assuming that the results in practice bear out those obtained 

 at the laboratory, to inoculate all new animals coming in, 

 and those already in the herd which have calved normally, 



