Experience in connection with the beef cattle herd at the Illinois
Agricultural Experiment Station with the methods of isolation, careful
disposal of infected material, cleaning and disinfection of infected
stalls, antiseptic irrigation of the genital passages of cows which had
aborted, and antiseptic irrigation of the bull before and after service,
together with the use of a special bull for heifers and clean cows, has
been very satisfactory. These measures were applied under the direction
of Professor H. W. Mumford and Mr. H. O. Allison. During the year
previous to the inauguration of these measures a large percentage of the
calves were lost by abortion. A decided improvement in respect to the
number of calves saved was coincident with the use of the procedures
mentioned above. They were applied to each case of abortion as it
occurred, until in the course of two years abortions have become very
infrequent and the herd is now considered free from the disease. It
should be noted, however, that those cows which had aborted were not
necessarily disposed of, but after local irrigation treatment until the
discharge had ceased, they were bred again. Some of the improvement in
the herd has, therefore, doubtless been due merely to the retention of
relatively immune cows.
Altho the experience here has been rather fortunate and the results
obtained seem to bear some relation to the employment of the measures
deemed worthy by the British Committee, we hesitate to state that there
was any necessary relation between them, because cattle men have
observed somewhat similar improvement in herds without the use of any
treatment at all. In other words, there appears to be a tendency for the
disease sometimes to die out in a herd or to become quiescent for a year
or two. On the other hand, the recommendations of the British Committee
supported as they seem to be by our local experience, certainly warrant
the recommendation of these measures for use in combating contagious
abortion. In any event good results cannot be expected without
intelligent, careful, and painstaking work, and it may be that some of
the failures in applying these measures have resulted from lack of
efficiency in applying them rather than from insufficiency of the
measures themselves.
References
1. =Bang.= Die Aetiologie des seuchenhaften ("infectiösen") Verwertens.
Ztschr. f. Thiermed. 1: 241-278. 1897.
2. =Board of Agriculture and Fisheries= (Great Britain). Report of the
Departmental Committee to inquire into Epizoötic Abortion. Part 1.
Epizoötic Abortion in Cattle. London, 1909.
3. =Chester.= A Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. 1901.
4. =McFadyean and Stockman.= Epizoötic Abortion. Report. Dept. Com. Bd.
Agr. and Fisheries. (Gt. Brit.), Appendix to Part I, 1909. Review in
Expt. Sta. Record =22=: 584-586. 1910.
5. =MacNeal= and =Kerr=. Bacillus abortus of Bang, the cause of
contagious abortion in cattle. Jour. Infect. Diseases =7=: 469-475
(1910).
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