SWINE FEVER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 537, 22 May 1933, Page 7

SWINE FEVER

DREADED DISEASE . PENS REMAIN SOURCE OF INFECTION FOR WEEKS. ' SYMPTOMS DESCRIBED. ■Swine fever is a most dreaded disease in pigs and has been recognised in England since 1862, when it caused ■ great mortality, and in Germany since i 1882- In North- America, during 1877 it caused very heavy losses. The cause ds ,a specific ovoid bacterium which produces a form of blood poisoning and exhibits its most eharacteristic lesions upon the mucous lining of the intestines. The cotitagium is both' fixed and volatile and may he readily conveyed by intermediate agents. The virus has great vitality and remains active in infected -sties, trucks and market pens for weeks after removal of diseased animals. The average period of incubation is from eight to 14 days, but the disease has been known to occur as early s foui- days and as late as 21 after exposure to dnfection. Young pigs three or four months old are most frequently attacked, hut hoth young'er and older animals may suffer. In some outbreaks the attack is so severe and so sudden "that the animal dies in a few hours. It breath'es hurriedly, staggers, falls doWn, and collapses. The ordinary acUte form of swine fever produces great depr^ssion, dullness, loss of appetite, high temperature, rapid breathing, discharge from nose and eyes, the ears droop, and the animal coughs frequently. At first constipation exists, hut this followed hy diarrhoea, which in some cases is persistent. Dsicolouration of the skin may he observed in many cases, but not in all. It sh'ows as rfid spots, blotches, pimples, or as a diffused deep redhess on the skin of the ears, inside the thighs, and on under parts of the abdomen. The dischargss from the bowels have a peculiar smell. The animal hecomes rapidly emaeiated and generally dies in from eight to 10 days after attack; should it survive the disease becomes chronic. , The chronic for mmay last from four to eight weeks, or even several months, without the animal showing any marked symptoms of illness. These partly recovered pigs are extremely dangerous, as they are capable of infecting healthy animals. Frequently, however, the chronic diisease causes gradual increasing weaknessj, diarrhoea, paralysis and death. The mortality varies from 50 to 75 per cent. The stomach and intestines, with their glands, are the chief seat of the disease. Haemorrhagic spots are freffuently noticed in the musculkr and sugcutaneous tissues of pigs that have died from swine fever. Treatment is useless. The disease is sch'eduled under the Contageous Diseases (Animals) Act in Britain. Eradicatioli and prevention are aimed at, but have not yet heen suecessful. News that swine fever has broken out in New Zealand should be reeeived with the utmost concern and all owners of pigs should co-operate with the Live Stock Division of the Depar'tment of Agriculture with' a view to oembatting it as speedily as possible, before it has an opportunty of spreading throughout the country. Swine fever is loked upon with just as much concern among pig breeders in the ■Old Country as is foot and mouth disease among catle breeders. Any pig breeder who has a pig at all "off codour," and is not able to definitely diagnose the trouble, should immediately get in toiich' with an officer of the department. A neglected case will mean the rapid spread of the disease throughout a district and consequences would be serious indeed.