Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 167, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1919 — PREVENT SPREAD OF VIRULENT DISEASES [ARTICLE]

PREVENT SPREAD OF VIRULENT DISEASES

Dead Animals Should Be Buried Deep or Burned. Left on Surface of Ground Their Odor Soon Invites Scavengers to Congregate and to Bring Infectious Material. (Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) The carcasses of animals which have succumbed to infectious diseases like anthrax, hog cholera, blackleg, tuberculosis, etc., are charged with myriads of virulent disease germs, find just as long as they remain ' where scavengers can reach them and portions of them can be carried away promiscuously, they are a dangerous menace over a large territory to all animals which are liable to be attacked by disease germs. Even carcasses of animals which have died from other causes than infectious diseases, unless they are disposed of in a proper way, are a source of danger. Left on the surface of' the ground, their odor soon invites scavengers to congregate and to bring with them the infectious material with which they may have-become contaminated by eating cart-ion elsewhere. Dead animals on the farm should be buried deep enough to prevent them from being dug up again, or they should be burned. To burn large carcasses like those of dead horses and cattle is difficult and laborious and requires a large quantity of fuel. In most instances it is more economical to bury them. All animals which have died from infectious diseases and are buried should be covered with a heavy layer of lime before the graves are closed. In the winter, when the ground is frozen, it is more difficult to dig graves than at other seasons of the year, but it is just in cold weather that disease germs remain alive and virulent longest in dead organic matter and that scavengers travel the longest distances, have the best appetites, and are most likely to carry disease germs on and in their bodies. The extra trouble of digging graves in the winder is easily offset by the greater danger it counteracts. Low temperature prevents the multiplication of disease germs, but many kinds of disease germs are not killed or deprived of their pernicious possibilities by exposure to a lower temperature than the lowest reached during an icy arctic winter. Everywhere farmers not only should attend to the proper and safe disposal of the bodies *of their own animals which unfortunately die, but they should Insist on the proper disposal of the bodies of all animals which die anywhere in the regions in which itheir farms are located.