PURDUE UNIVERSITY
Agricultural Experiment Station
Circular No. 44
LaFayette, Ind., September, 1914
THE PREVENTION OF HOG-CHOLERA IN INDIANA
Chester G. Starr Department of Animal Husbandry
The very heavy loss of hogs in Indiana for the last few years and the possibility of curtailing the loss is the occasion of this circular.
STATISTICS OF LOSSES
In 1912, according to the estimates of the United States Department of Agiculture, the swine growers of Indiana reported that they lost 556,400 hogs or about one hundred fifty in every thousand; in 1913, the death rate was slightly lower, the loss being 535,000, a rate of one hundred thirty-five in every thousand, a very heavy loss when compared with the ten year rate of seventy-five in every thousand. This reported loss does not include all of the loss. Usually, the pigs lost at farrowing time and shortly afterwards, are not counted in making up the reported loss. It is a conservative estimate that 20 per cent, of the pigs farrowed, are lost in the time between farrowing and weaning. This is due to improper feed for the sows and pigs, lack of exercise, bad houses, either too cold, too wet or not adapted for farrowing, and the lack of care that young pigs and their mother require.
HOG-CHOLERA TAKES GREATEST TOLL
Ninety per cent, of the reported loss is due to hog-cholera. Although lice, worms and exposure do make hogs unthrifty and kill a few now and then, cholera kills its thousands. Within the last few years, a preventive serum has been discovered, developed and successfully used in the control of cholera,