Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1910-04-29
Method of PreventinG Spread of Hog
Cholera Found.

After working for eleven years over the
problem of hog cholera the Department of
Agriculture has perfected a system of in
oculation against the disease that can save
the farmers of the United States millions
of dollars annually and will have some
effect on the high cost of living question,
owing to the fact that it will allow the
farmers to raise more hogs per annum and
will furnish larger supply to the market,
where price of pork has recently been soar
ing.
Hog cholera is known in Europe as Swine
pest" and wherever pigs are raised it takes
a heavy toll 1t is hard to say what the
disease costs the farmers of the United
States, but the Department of Agriculture
says it is somewhere between ten and forty
million dollars each year.
Some idea of the virulence of an cpl
demic when it gets started may be gained
from the figures that were collected when
the department was making the last field
tests with the new serum. Out of one
herd of thirty hogs only four were left
alive after an epidemic of the disease On
an adjoining farm there was herd of EOS,
and of these all but six died. One of the
difficulties of controlling an epidemic when
it starts is that the disease is highly infec-
tious and. as a rule, the hogs on one farm
come in contact with those of another, and
Tina Rnnfndinn 10 onraaH In IN
time ago there was no method of protec-
ton but the slow, costly and unsatisfactory
system of quarantine.
In view of the fact that hog cholera was
so deadly and destructive and cost the
farmers so much. there have been sporadic
attempts to cope with it for about twenty
years. 1t was thought there ought to be
some system of incubation, because 1t was
noticed when hog did recover, which was
the exception rather than the rule, he was
afterward immune to contagion Drs. Sal
mon and Smith, when the former was the
head of the bureau Of animal industry,
thought they had succeeded in isolating
the germ, and there was series of expert
ments based on their discovery II was
found afterward that the bacillus they had
found was usually present in the blood in
cases of hog cholera, but it was not the
bug they were after. incubation with cul-
lures Of this bacillus did not give immu-
nifty.
But the department did not give il up
For eleven years it stuck steadily to the
task, and the mere fact that this long
course of work was absolutely unproduc-
tive was one of the arguments against the |
research work of the department. At last,
however, the reward came. and the saving
to farmers and the public in few seasons, |
even though the protection is not univer- |
sally adopted. will pay all the expenses of |
the department for the last ten years.
The discovery was finally made that |
there was no bacillus Of hog cholera, at |
least not so far as can be discovered The |
blood of hog cholera victim can be passed |
through porcelain filter and still convey |
the disease. In that respect it is like the |
infection of the yellow fever. the germ of |
which has never been found. though means |
have been discovered of combating il.
Finally. the experiment was tried of us
ing the blood of an immune hog to inject
into the non-immune hogs. 1t was found
that this was not quite effective. but that
If an immune hog were injected with the
blood Of hog that was sick with the chol-
era il would so raise the percentage of the
protective element in his blood that this
could be injected into non-immune hog
and give him immunity. though he was
thrown in contact with whole herd suffer |
ing from swine pest
1t was a long and tedious work to get a |
protective serum that could be readily used |
under field conditions, but the bureau of |
animal industry finally accomplished il,
and now they can inoculate hog against
hog cholera and make him safe for life. |
The experiments have been tried long
enough in the field to leave no doubt in
he minds of both farmers and scientists
hat the work has really been accomplished.
The result 1t is estimated. is worth at least
80, 600 900 year.