Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1879-12-19
fatillers' Gnlmmil.
The Swine Plague and How to Ex-
YaNw tirpate It.

ANEA
The Commissioner of Agriculture has
made diligent efforts to carry out the act
OF Congress appropriating $4,000 to
defray the expenses of commission to
investigate and determine the causes of
the contagious diseases incident to do
INVESTIGATED animals. and. if possible, find
remedies for them. These diseases are
chiefly the pleuro-pneumonia or contag-
iouslung fever to which cattle arc sub
ject,s and the "hog cholera" or swine
plague, which annually carries off about
20 per cent. of the hogs raised in the
country. In 1877 the people of the
United States lost SIG, 650,000 from
these diseases, of which two-thirds was
by hog cholera. The Commissioner ac
cordingly directed the experts employed
by him to give their chief attention to
this disorder. and especially to determine
the question, still in dispute, as to
whether it be contagious or not. Two
examiners in particular occupied their
time in experiments with living swine,
with this object directly in view Some
of the results obtained are very conclu-
sive, and all of them are interesting. -
1t was found that the disease prevails
more extensively during the late sum-
mer and early fall months than at any
other seasons of the year, the reduced
temperature later in the year tending to
cause an abatement in the number of
cases. The fatality of the disease was
not, however, diminished by lower
temperature The spread of infection
from one herd TO another was checked,
but not its spread from one animal to
another in the same herd. A Chicago
veterinary surgeon, investigating in Jan
uary, in "a section where the thermom-
cter was % degrees below zero, says that /
the disease seemed to be just as fatal as
in August, and its course, on the whole,
is probably more acute, as severe affec-
tons of the lungs and of the heart are
more frequent"
DIR: Law, of Ithaca, n. Y. established
the fact that the freezing of the virulent
matter does not destroy its activity, ''and
the virus loses nothing in potency by
preservation for one or two months close
ly packed in dry bran"
The name of Swine plague" has been
generally adopted by the veterinary sur
geons as most accurately describing the
character of the disease. It is found to
be a general disorder, affecting seriously
several of the most vital organs, always
attended with an increase in tempera-
ture, and with severe LESSONS and morbid
processes. The animal droops, looks
dull, loses flesh and appetite, staggers,
coughs, seeks dark corners and has an
offensive smell The period of the in
cubation of the disease is from twelve to
twenty days, in its progress, according
to the severity of the attack, it termi-
mates fatally in periods varying from
twenty-four hours to ten or twelve days.
DR.. Detmers, the Chicago expert, has
discovered that the probable cause of
the disease is new order of bacteria
or Jdciilas, which he calls bacillus suis,
and he has also found that in every case
in which healthy animals were inoculated
with these microphites they had the
swine plague, while in every case where
they were inoculated with the virus of
diseased animals from which the bacillus
had been eliminated they failed to have
the disease The experiments both of
DR.. Law and DR.. Detmers prove con-
clusiyely that healthy animals penned
with diseased ones, or fed upon or inoc-
ulated with the virus of diseased ones,
contracted the disease themselves. Not
only this, but rabbits and other animals
so inoculated were seized with and dieG
of unmistakabe swine plague. The
conclusion from these experiments is ir-
resistible The swine plague is a dis
ease of extremely contagious nature,
propagated from one animal to another
and from one herd to another by the dis
semination of morbiic germ, the vital
ty of which is very difficult to destroy.
Practically the disease is incurable when
once planted in the system OF the animal.
There is a great variety of quack nos.
trums in vogue, the curative powers of
some Of which have been highly Wanted.
but the experts have found all of them
worthless. The only way to deal with it
at all successfully, the experts concur in
saying, is by prevention aud by the
'stamping-out process II is strongly
urged that all diseased animals should at
once be killed and their bodies buried
that all animals exposed to Infection
should be isolated, aud all places aud
pens where they have .,iscd should bu dis
infected and cleaned up, all their piFal
being scrupulou>ly destroyed Ia this
way any outbreak of the contagion may
be arrested at once, confined to the dis
trict in which it originated, and prevent
ed from spreading further. In few
years these processes, vigorously followed
up, will have the effect of practically
protecting our swine from this deadly in \
lection. u Baltic. Saa.
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