664 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 12, 1919 
Live Stock Questions 
% 
Answered By Prof. F. C. Minkler 
Hog Cholera Problems 
1 would like to know the beet thing to 
do with pigs as, to the prevention of hog 
cholera. Some authorities advise the se¬ 
rum and virus treatment, and others say 
that pigs do not make good gains treated 
mi. Do the experiment stations use serum 
or virus on pigs or hogs? W hat should be 
the cost to treat a pig weighing 50 lbs. 
with serum and virus, and how long would 
this be good for? Would this have any 
effect on the breeding quality of the sows 
if kept for breeding? e. w. y. 
Lakewood, N. J. 
There is a- difference of opinion as to 
the advisability of using the single or 
double treament as a preventive against 
hog cholera. Serum alone will establish 
immunity for a period varying from four 
to eight weeks. It is an agency that will 
not. under any circumstances, introduce 
hog cholera into a herd, and it often en¬ 
ables the owner of the pigs to stamp out 
the disease in case an outbreak is encoun¬ 
tered. TL double treatment—that is. the 
use of serum and virus simultaneously— 
for the services of the veterinarian. 
In case the pigs were treated at this 
(weaning) age. it would probably not af¬ 
fect. the breeding propensities of the herd. 
The introduction of large amounts of 
serum and the required amount of virus 
into mature animals oftentimes depre¬ 
ciates their breeding qualities. Neverthe¬ 
less. a certain number of the sows double- 
treated are not regular and dependable 
breeders, and instances are not, uncommon 
where abortion or failure tOTJreed at all 
has been traced direct to the use of the 
double treatment. Two of the most ex¬ 
tensive breeders in the corn belt, who have 
had to do with Berkshire breeding, re¬ 
cently admitted that they were practically 
put out of business as a result of using 
the double treatment persistently. 
Rather than depend exclusively upon 
such a preventive agency as serum to es¬ 
tablish immunity and vigor in a herd, one 
can greatly increase the natural resist¬ 
ance of his animals by letting them have 
access to forage crops, and keeping them 
well supplied with mineral matter, for a 
healthy, regularly exercised pig is less 
subject to infection than one closely con¬ 
fined in filthy pens and inefficiently nour¬ 
ished with sloppy feeds. Bj all means I 
would get in touch with the department at 
Trenton and make sure that if any emer¬ 
gency did arise I could get hold of the 
serum and have it administered promptly, 
and thus prevent a general outbreak go¬ 
ing through my herd. A communication 
directed to Dr. J. II. McNeil, Chief of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry, at Trenton, 
N. J.. will inform you as to the exact ser¬ 
vices the department is offering or is in a 
position to render in reference to hog 
cholera. 
Buckwheat for Swine 
How does buckwheat middlings compare 
with wheat middlings as a feed for pigs? 
What is a good feed for a suckling sow 
and weaned pigs? B. N. K. 
Delaware. 
One ton of buckwheat middlings carries 
a total of 1.532 lbs. of digestible nutri¬ 
ents. while one ton of standard wheat 
middlings carries 1.386 lbs. The white 
flour middlings, commonly known as "Red 
Dog flour,” carry 1.5S4 lbs., yet it is not 
an easy matter to secure middlings of this 
sort at the present time. Thus, it will be 
seen that there is very little difference 
in the actual analysis of the two 
products, and generally the trade prefers 
buckwheat middlings to the wheat mid¬ 
dlings for feeding cows. With pigs, how¬ 
ever. the wheat by-products are preferred 
since there appears to be a coarseness 
about the buckwheat middlings that irri¬ 
tates the digestive system of the pig and 
limits the amount that he can digest. 
There is a tendency among the trade to 
market a product knowu as ‘‘buckwheat 
feed" that carries a high percentage of 
buckwheat hulls, and a ton of this ma¬ 
terial will yield slightly more than 900 lbs. 
of digestible nutrients. This Ts not an 
ideal feed for pigs, and indigestion and 
even gastritis might result from the feed¬ 
ing of pigs exclusively upon this material. 
If buckwheat middlings of a high grade 
are used in pig feeding, they should not 
constitute more thau 15 or 20 per cent of 
the ration, and they should form a part 
of a ration made up of corn, ground oats 
and digester tankage. Buckwheat feed 
serves its most useful prpose in rations 
for dairy cows where bulk is a requisite 
and where variety is an important ad¬ 
junct to the ration. 
A satisfactory ration for brood sows 
nursing pigs would be 10O lbs. of corn- 
meal or hominy. 200 lbs. of ground oats, 
40 lbs. of white flour middlings and 10 lbs. 
of digester tankage. For weaned pigs the 
following would be acceptable : 100 lbs. of 
cornmeal: 100 lbs. of ground oats: 100 lbs. 
of white flour middlings and 15 lbs. of 
oilmeal. or 10 lbs. of digester tankage. If 
skim-juilk is available it would increase 
the value of both of these rations, and 
the tankage could be omitted from either, 
in case you were able to feed as much as 
5 lbs. of milk with each pound of grain. 
I would not include any of the buckwheat 
feed iu the ration for young pigs : how¬ 
ever, 100 lbs. of buckwheat middlings 
could replace 100 lbs. of oats in a ration 
for a sow suckling pigs. Some buckwheat 
might also be used with the shotes after 
they reached the weight of 75 or 100 lbs. 
does establish permanent immunity, yet 
there are disadvantages which accom¬ 
pany this treatment. If it is adminis¬ 
tered. however, by a veterinarian, and 
used on a healthy herd before there are 
any temperatures among the pigs or any 
evidences of cholera, direct losses are very 
few. Instances are not infrequent where 
the gaining propensities of the pigs have 
been checked and the breeding habits im¬ 
paired by the use of the serum and virus. 
Once one introduces the double treatment 
iu his herd of pigs he must continue its 
use. for a certain percentage of the ani¬ 
mals doubly treated are what we identify 
as carriers, and would be continually pass¬ 
ing germs that would infect animals intro¬ 
duced into the herd that had not been 
given a similar treatment. Oftentimes hog 
cholera is disseminated by means of a 
farmer who immunizes all his animals 
making a sale from his herd to go into an 
untreated herd. 
The double treatment is used at the Ex¬ 
periment Station at New Brunswick 
largely because the area used for pasture 
is almost contiguous to the serum produc¬ 
tion plant of Squibb & Sou. and. further¬ 
more. the herd, being used for experiment¬ 
al and demonstration purposes, is visited 
by a large number of people who might 
easily be carriers of the disease. It must 
be remembered that that double treatment 
cannot be administered to brood sows 
nursing pigs lest the milk flow be checked. 
It cannot be used on brood sows well ad¬ 
vanced in pregnancy lest abortion will be 
encountered. The serum alone treatment, 
iu case an outbreak prevails, must be used 
in such instance. 
I would not use the double treatment 
unless I were located iu a section where hog 
cholera persistently and regularly pre¬ 
vailed. I would rather depend upon the 
serum alone to stamp out the disease once 
it was encountered, and then I would 
clean up the premises, if possible, by em- 
ploving every known means of sanitation 
and disinfection. If 1 exhibited any hogs 
from a herd not treated I would surely 
use the serum on the show hogs, and like¬ 
wise they would be quarantined 30 days 
upon their return from the circuit. I 
would surely quarantine all animals 
brought into the herd for a period of 30 
davs disinfect, the shipping crates, and 
not vuake it a practice to permit indis¬ 
criminate tramping around in the hog lot 
by visitors, even though they might be in¬ 
terested in pork production. If I used 
the double treatment I would prefer to 
use if' just following the weaning stage; 
that is, if the hogs were maintained on 
cholera infected premises; then the pigs, 
when five or six weeks old. would be 
given the serum treatment, and two weeks 
after weaning they would be given the 
double treatment. It is believed that im¬ 
munity is more stable if the double treat¬ 
ment is delayed until the pigs are eating 
solid food. 
The Department of Agriculture at Tren¬ 
ton has charge of the disease control work. 
Unless their rules and regulations have 
been recently modified they will provide 
veterinarians for administering the serum, 
or will, if one insists, supervise the ad¬ 
ministration of the double treatment, the 
only cost to the owner being the actual 
cost of the serum administered. It would 
take about 20 c.c. of serum for a 50-lb. 
pig, and this would cost in the neighbor-, 
hood of 3c a c.c. Where a small herd of 
pigs was treated by a veterinarian the 
cost might be excessive, but where a large 
number were treated the cost would vary 
from 50c to $1 a head. This ought to pro¬ 
vide for both the cost of the serum and 
//%• PORTLAND <Z\ 
k 
k 
w* _ 
rcONCRBTfcO; 
Use the coupon and get this book 
THE ATLAS PORTLAND CEMENT 
COMPANY 
(Address the Atlas office nearest you) 
Please send me a copy of ‘‘ CONCRETE 
ON THE FARM" without cost or obligation. 
How to Get 
Grade-A Milk 
Sleek, healthy cattle, protected from pests 
and filth, scientifically housed, fed and 
watered, insure clean milk. 
Milk handled so that it leaves your farm 
a 3 sweet and pure as when it came from 
the udder will bring Grade-A prices. 
Do it by clean methods. Concrete is 
easy to keep clean. Build with concrete 
made of 
Atlas Portland Cement 
Concrete construction is time-proof, 
germ-proof, rodent-proof, weather¬ 
proof, repair-proof; easy and quick 
to build, easy and quick to clean. 
Cow barns, milkhouses, silos, water troughs, feed¬ 
ing floors made of concrete mean stock protection, 
sanitation, conservation and Grade-A milk pro¬ 
duction at less cost and less labor. 
Our 94-page free book, "Concrete on the Farm,” 
is illustrated and contains simple plans and in¬ 
structions. It tells what to build and how to build 
it —a real THRIFT book. Read it, get a few 
bags of Atlas, do the job yourself and enjoy the 
profits of Grade-A milk. 
THE ATLAS PORTLAND CEMENT CO. 
Name- 
New York 
Chicago 
Dayton 
Bodton Philadelphia 
De: *' 
Minneapolis 
=> Moiue.4 
Savannah 
St. Louis 
v. 
■Address 
