The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1897-04-08

/
died. This was the origin of an out
break which has proven zone of the
most serious this State has ever seen
and what is probably continuation
of this is still killing Minnesota hogs
| III serious numbers. The Obvious
lesson is that the hogs first shipped in
and taken to the farm should have
been quarantined two or three weeks
before being turned with the others
and thus the whole loss would have
been avoided, a loss which will prove
q serious blow,to the swine industry
Of Minnesota in one portion of the
State at least. A second mistake was
made by local health officers when
they allowed dead hog to lie UNI
buried in the stock yards, if it is true
that they did SO and in their failure to
disinfect grounds and fences. Even
blowing would have been far prefer
able to what did occur.
Hogs that have died of hog cholera
are sometimes thrown into streams or
buried in the sand near the edge of q
stream or lake. It is q mistake to
bury them at all if it is convenient to
burn them. If buried they should be
buried deeply with at least four feet
of dirt on top.
1t is a mistake, and frequently a
serious one, for farmer to ship in a
lot of strange hogs, from unknown
stock yards and in cars that may have
been infected, to his own farm and
put them with the stock hogs already
on hand. The mere fact that hogs come
from a non-infected district is no ar
gument to the contrary, for the car in
which they we're shipped may have
carried lot of hog cholera victims for
the last load. It is a mistake to ship
in hogs and not quarantine them on
the farm for at least two weeks and
better three, before turning with the
other hogs. This gives time for the
disease to break out in case the new
hogs have come from infected herds
or through infected stock yards or in
infected cars. It is plainly mistake
to visit your neighbours hog pens and
walk around among the hogs, out of
mere curiosity, when he has told you
of some peculiar sickness that has ap-
peared in his herd.
It 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 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
much longer period of time keeping
the yards and pens infected and a
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.
In dealing with infectious diseases
of swine there are practically but two
things for health officers to consider:
Quarantine and disinfection. It's a
very simple matter to quarantine an
outbreak of hog cholera in the first
yard where it appears and it is ex-
tremely difficult, and usually impracti-
cal, 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 by the Blu
reau 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 buildings under favorable con-
ditions. Sometimes the cheapest way
/ to disinfect is to burn the old sheds
and pens, where the hogs have been
confined. But if these structures are
too valuable for that then the matter
of other (1iainfection is tf) he consider