Swine Diseases

THE FOLLOWING observations on Diseases of Swine are taken from the report of T. Lloyd Jones, 1 Animal Pathologist for the Department of Agriculture, Alberta. "The diseases found most frequently in this species are preventable by good housing and feeding and by having a programme which includes simple routine practices for the prevention of common ailments. Without suitable quarters for housing, to include adequate ventilation, warmth and .sanitation, it is difficult to prevent Pasteurella infection, pneumonia, and other serious diseases. Lack of sanitation usually aggravates the menace of worm infestation. When iron in some form is not fed to penned pigs before they begin to eat from the trough, anaemia usually occurs. If pigs begin feeding on unsifted oat chop, the rough hulls often produce gastritis and enteritis (inflammation of the lining of the stomach and intestines). "Necrotic enteritis which is so common is a germ infection, characterized by inflammation and necrosis of the lining of the large intestine. This disease usually occurs in pigs from weaning time to an age of four months, housed in cold and filthy pens or having access to hoglots with long standing mud wallows. Other predisposing causes are worm infestation, changes of diet, the presence of rough particles in the grain, and perhaps the most important dietary cause is a deficiency of nicotinic acid-a part of the Vitamin B complex-in the grain. The last mentioned is usally associated with a train of symptoms which begins with lack of appetite, followed by evidence of itchiness in the skin, loss of weight and a persistent diarrhoea. Symptoms of this nature warrant the feeding of dried brewer's yeast, which is rich in the whole vitamin B complex. "So far as we are able to observe, the acute swine infections; e.g., swine erysipelas and swine influenza, are not common in this province. It is important to realize that a group of acute infections in swine are difficult to differentiate by clinical examination alone. A variety of different microbes produce very similar symptoms, and it is often necessary to demonstrate the actual organism in a given outbreak before a definite diagnosis is possible." The foregoing remarks reveal that the character of diseases and ailments responsible for losses in swine production in that province are quite similar to those in Ontario and the east. It is noted what an important place in successful swine raising suitable housing, proper feeding, and sanitation play in the prevention of disease, and this thought also reveals how important it is that veterinarians should thoroughly acquaint themselves with those features which constitute good swine husbandry. It is observed also in the tabulation of the number and nature of the specimens submitted for examination total 1435, and what is perhaps more interesting and significant that no less than 16 species of animals and ten species of birds are included in the list. This reveals the diversity of the useful service the veterinarian can provide and also the important place he occupies in the diagnosis and the control of disease phenomena in the many species of animals and birds which are submitted to him. The importance of his service is not confined to the animals alone for on occasions diseases of the animals are transmissible to human beings, and the veterinarian can in many instances make an important contribution to human medical service by pointing out the danger of certain of the diseases being contracted by the people who own and care for animals affected in that manner.R. A. McIntosh.
1 Annual

Report, Department of Agriculture, Alberta.

[2521