56 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
to carry away any infections within the vagina which immediately 
after the opening of the cervical canal of the uterus at the time of 
calving may otherwise drop into the uterine cavity and there establish 
disease. 
3. When the calf is born it should be received upon a clean anti- 
septic sheet and at once carried to a clean calf stall and rubbed dry. 
If it is desired to allow the calf to remain temporarily with the cow, 
great care should be taken to see that the bedding is kept clean. 
After the calf has been dried, if not earlier, the stump of the navel 
cord should be disinfected. It should not be ligated. Prepare a 
warm 1 to 1,000 solution of corrosive sublimate, fill a goblet or cup 
with it, and, having the calf held in a standing position, press the 
vessel against the floor of the belly so that the stump of the navel 
cord is submerged in the disinfecting fluid. Retain it in this position 
for at least 10 minutes. Immediately afterwards dust the stump of 
the cord over liberally with a disinfecting desiccating powder, as 
alum and camphor, and repeat every 30 minutes until the stump is 
dry. 
The body openings (mouth, nostrils, vulva of heifer, and sheath of 
bull calf) should be disinfected with a 0.5 per cent Lugol's solution. 
4. Prior to drawing milk from the dam or other cow for feeding 
the calf, or permitting the calf to suck, the udder and adjacent parts 
of the cow should be thoroughly disinfected. The milk should be 
drawn in a sterile vessel under the strictest cleanliness. If the milk 
is from a cow not known to be free from tuberculosis, it should be 
sterilized before feeding. Individual feeding vessels should be used 
and regularly sterilized. 
When calves have reached 3 months of age, it may usually be 
fairly determined if they are free from disease, in which case they 
may be handled in groups. These, however, should be kept as small 
as economically practicable until the heifers have calved and are 
ready for the dairy. Even then the larger the number of animals in 
one stable the greater the risk of infection and the more destructive 
will it be if it gains entrance. 
5. When breeding time for the heifer grown under the foregoing 
conditions is approaching, we would advise that her vagina be 
douched once daily for at least three weeks before breeding, at first 
with a 0.5 per cent Lugol's solution, and thereafter each second day 
with a 0.25 per cent solution. The douching should extend over at 
least one estrual period, or 21 days prior to breeding, and followed 
for an equal time after breeding, or until it is determined she is 
pregnant. The bull should preferably have been grown in the same 
manner as the heifers he is to serve and his genitals douched in a 
similar way. 
