People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1895 — Hog Cholera and Its Prevention. [ARTICLE]

Hog Cholera and Its Prevention.

The following bulletins is issued from the Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station under date of Oct. 81, 1895: It is difficult to estimate the loss Indiana farmers, have sustained from hog cholera and swine plauge this year. In s ome counties it will reach 125,000 and it the whole state has suffered as much as the northwestern portion, the total will probably exceed SBOO,OOO. There are two diseases responsible for these heavy losses, hog cholera and swine plague. As they are much alike in symptoms and occur under similar conditions, they may be treated as one disease. Both are germ diseases of such fatal character that only a smaller per cent of the hogs attacked ever recover. Medical treatment is not very effectual. Preventive measures are more successful and arc the ones to be adopted. These diseases being due to germs, cannot exist without the germs being present. They are taken into the body with the food, water and air. The closer animals come in contact, the greater the possibilities of spreading; hence, healthy and diseased animals should be separated as soon as the disease is recognized. The healthy hogs should be taken from the sick and not the sick from the well, as in the latter case the excrement and secretions containing the contagious principles are left in the pen, on the ground, straw and troughs. During an outbreak it is better to have the herd divided in bunches of about fifteen, in small pastures, rather than a large herd in large field. The hogs should not have access to ponds or wallows as this affords favorable conditions for the gerhas. The drinking water should be from deep wells. The food should be clean and often changed. If a hog has been separated from* the herd and recovers it should not be returned to the herd for several weeks, as it is capable of giving the disease to others although it may appear to be perfectly well. Hogs should not be placed in pens where the disease has been for three months. All dead animals should be burned or buried deeply in places where hogs will not graze for a year. Diseased hogs should not be driven through lanes or public highways. The healthy hogs should be eared lor first and then the diseased, otherwise disease bearing material may be conveyed to the healthy. Clean the pens, use plenty of air slacked lime on the floors before using again. The following formula given by the Bureau of Animals Industry is as efficacious as any thing known as a preventive remedy. It has given fair results: Wood charcoal,.., 1 lb Sodium ch10ride,...........2 *♦ Sodium bicarbonate, ~ .2 Sodium hyposulphide, ,2 *• Sulphur 1 ** Sodium sulphate, 1 *♦ Antimony sulphide, ,1 •• Give a tablespoonful once a day to a 150 pound hog. Give in sloppy feeds, as bran, middling, crushed oats, etc. It will cost about tl.oo to have it filled. AtW. BITTING, Veterinarian.