Contagious Abortion in Cattle. 



69 



of 4 per cent, of cresyl, or of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), 

 in the proportion of 40 grammes to 1 litre of rain-water — that 

 is, a 4 per cent, solution. 



With these hygienic measures the following preventive 

 treatment may usefully be combined. Its mode of action is 

 difficult to understand, but experience has proved it to be 

 frequently successful : — 



All in-calf cows in an infected byre should be given, twice 

 a month, a subcutaneous injection* of 20 cubic centimetres 

 of a solution of pure phenic acid at 2 per cent, (two grammes 

 to 100 grammes of distilled water). 



In several byres, where abortion has been very prevalent, 

 these phenic injections have checked the outbreak ; the cows 

 that were forward in gestation alone aborted ; the others 

 calved at their proper time, and the byres have definitely 

 h>ecome healthy. 



These courses of treatment are very simple, and require 

 only care and patience. When a byre is infected, indeed, a 

 sudden cessation of abortions cannot be expected, as the 

 treatment has no effect on cows which already were infected 

 with the germ of the disease when it was first applied. Such 

 cows will inevitably abort ; and as soon as the first symptoms 

 present themselves the animals should be isolated, in order 

 to subsequently put them into condition and fatten them for 

 the butcher. 



During the first trial, accordingly, abortion will continue, 

 hut the disease will be less serious, since there will be no 

 fresh cows infected ; and after the second season there will 

 not be a single case of infectious abortion. 



These simple hygienic measures, wherever owners of 

 cattle have had the necessary confidence, patience, and 



* In regard to the treatment of in-calf cows in an infected byre by a subcutaneous 

 injection of a solution of pure phenic acid, a word may be said. It is not easy for a 

 layman to give a hypodermic injection, and where this cannot be done skilfully the 

 following is suggested by the Irish Department of Agriculture as an alternative : — 



Beginning in early winter, mix ^ oz. of Calvert's No. 4 carbolic acid in a bran or 

 •other mash, and feed to the in-calf cows every third day, gradually increasing the 

 proportion of carbolic acid to ^oz. after the animals have taken to it. Continue this 

 treatment through the winter ; of course with the general antiseptic treatment 

 recommended by Professor Nocard. 



