(6) The keeping of a special bull for serving animals which have
aborted, or, what is based on the same idea, the disinfection of the
external genital organs of the bull with antiseptic solutions after he
has served such a cow.
(7) Destruction of the abortion membranes, and disinfection of the parts
of the buildings, litter, etc., with which the infective material has
come in contact.
(8) The keeping of a goat, especially a male goat, in a byre with the
cows."
It cannot be said of the above measures that either singly or
collectively they have brought about any material improvement in the
general condition of our herds in relation to abortion. According to
reports, decided improvements have been effected in individual herds by
the adoption of isolation and disinfection, while in others very little
has been accomplished. Some of the above methods are founded on nothing
more than ignorant empiricism, while others are based upon pathological
and physiological considerations which are only partially correct in
their applications. Since most of them have obtained a certain amount of
hold, at least on the minds of stockowners, it may be useful to discuss
each measure separately in the light of our recent investigations.
_Spraying of the External Genital Organs._--This is a procedure which
probably has little or no value. (_Abridged._)
_Isolation of Animals as soon as they show Signs of Abortion._--The
necessity for this measure is obvious, and its importance cannot be too
much insisted on. An infected animal only becomes infective to others
immediately before the act of abortion, and may remain so for some weeks
afterwards. However, only a proportion of the affected animals show
premonitory signs, and quite a number may abort amongst their companions
without warning. Under such conditions, then, measures of immediate
isolation lose much of their undoubted theoretical value, owing to the
difficulty in the way of carrying them out in practice. There is not
likely to be any serious difficulty in diagnosing the bacterial disease
after an act of abortion, even in an isolated case, if the membranes are
available in a reasonably fresh state. (_Abridged._)
Isolation of the affected animals, however, must be complete before and
after the act to be of any real value. Having regard to what appears to
be the most common form of infection, viz., by ingestion, we do not
think that anything material is to be gained by merely putting all the
cows about to abort and those which have aborted at the lower end of a
byre, so that the infective discharges may not come in contact with the
external genital organs of their fellows, unless we assume that
infection frequently takes place by an animal licking virulent material
from a part of its body where it has been deposited by flicks of the
tail which has been contaminated by lying in the gutter behind the
stalls.
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