The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-10-15
SWINE PLAGUE.
This Disease Is Making Inroads on the
Battle Brook Swine.


is giving the people of that vicinity
great concern. The hogs are dying
rapidly and no measures which the
grangers have been able to take have
checked it in the least. The State
veterinarian has been notified and has
given those interested valuable hints.
and now the board Of supervisors has
taken hold of the matter. AS the
plague is very liable to spread, IA few
extracts from a circular on this dis
ease will not be out of place.
Those who wish to obtain the
full text may do SO by applying to the
State Experimental Station. ST. An
thony Park. In case there is a suspi-
cious epidemic among hogs in a neigh
borhood, the matter should be reported
promptly to health officers and this
first outbreak should be rigidly quar-
antined until it is determined by com
petent veterinary inspection whether
the disease is either or a mixed infec-
ton OF the two recognized contagious
diseases of swine and this quarantine
should remain in force until efficient
action is taken by the health officers.
II the epidemic has assumed serious
proportions and is widely scattered in
the neighborhood the man who owns
large herd of sound hogs should estab-
lish rigid private quarantine and say
to all his neighbors please do not go
near my hog pens or yards" He
should have one man take care of his
hogs and this man should not be al
lowed to go where there is possibility
of getting the infection. The owner
nor any member of his family should
60 to the farm where an epidemic
swine disease has appeared, neither
should anyone from the farm where
such sickness has appeared, be allowed
to walk around the yards Of his neigh
bors until.the matter is all cleared up.
Dogs should be kept away from the
pens for the same reason
1t is mistake to allow the last one
or two of the sick hogs, which usually
show very chronic type Of the dis
ease, to linger for months on the farm
and retain the disease. It is better
policy to kill such hogs promptly and
have done with the disease, for such
hogs do not usually become thrifty and
profitable feeders for a long time after
recovering; and on the other hand
they may remain infectious to the last
period of their sickness and thus serve
to continue the disease over a much
longer period of time keeping the
yards and pens infected and constant
supply of infectious material for fresh
outbreaks; Whereas, if they had been
killed and deeply buried, the infection
could soon have been gotten rid Of Y
In dealing with infectious diseases of
swine there are practically but two
things for health officers to consider:
Quarantine and distinction. It is
simple matter to quarantine an out
break of hog cholera in the first yard
where it appears and it is extremely
difficult, and usually impractical. to
quarantine the disease after it has
scattered over several townships.
Again, quarantine must be rigid to be
useful: partial or imperfect quarantine
is worse than useless. AS for disin-
lection, if the disease is of unmixed
swine plague, nature will disinfect in
two or three weeks. The germs of
swine plague do not live long in the
soil or around buildings, as shown by
experiments made the Bureau of
Animal Industry. On the contrary, if
the disease be genuine hog cholera it
is not so easily gotten rid of, for the
germs may live three, and perhaps
four months in the soil and in. build
ings under favorable conditions.
Sometimes the cheapest way to disin-
feet is to burn the old sheds and pens,
where the hogs have been confined.
But II these structures are too valuable
for that then the matter of other dis
infection is to be considered. In this
case corrosive sublimate, dissolved in
water. in the proportion 200; or
white wash that is made by first slak-
ing the lime with water and then mix
ing up white wash in the ordinary way,
but using instead of plain water, water
that contains per cent of pure car
bolic acid. All bedding and loose stuff
Of the sort should be burned. The.
ground may be disinfected by saturat-
ing the surface with corrosive
sublimate solution or the dam
ger may be lessened by blowing.
Sometimes it is more desirable to tear
up the old floors than to attempt to
disinfect, but if it is thought desirable
to disinfect them, the pens should be-
thoroughly swept and then saturated
with the corrosive sublimate solution
above given.
ES5ss5=Z Estray9 N Office.