CONTAGIOUS ABORTION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1019, 7 January 1911, Page 8

CONTAGIOUS ABORTION.

A FRENCH REMEDY.

One of tlie most serious : troubles dairymen and stockowners have to contend with is contagious abortion among their''breeding animals. A trcatinont for the prevention of contagious abortion in cattle, which is said to have been attended with highly satisfactory results, has been practised in Franco, for a. number of years, and lias at .last attracted tlxo attention of veterinary surgeons throughout that country. This treatment was first made public in tho journal ■ of ■ the Veterinary 'School of Lyons, as . far back as 1597, by Mr. Ch.. Grain, agricultural .engineer, and president of the Agricultural Society of Gourgom. . Mr.--Geuin gives the following description of his method of conqueringithe disease: —"It consists of subcutaneous injections of 2 per cent, of carbolic acid (20. grammes of acid in 1000 grammes of boiling water) every 15 days, to all the in'-calt ooivs from the fifth to tho sovr enib,month of gestation. .. The injection is msde in the animal's neck, just below' t'i'ja dewlap; the.quantity injected is 20 cubic centimetres. . The process is simple, without danger, as it is without pain to the animal'; it has this advantage ■ that it may be employed by any handy person, and it costs very littlo. Tho result of this treatment has been that ill my herd abortion has completely disappeared since. it was first applied in June, 1895." I'uring the previous, four years the diseaso was so serious that 75 per cent, of ihe breeding cows in his herd aborted. -built on'the most r approved plan. 1 They' wero kept scrupvlously clean, the:wails were frequently whitewashed with lime and sulphate of copper,- and the cows were washed, almost, daily., with antiseptics. Notwithstanding these precautions tho disease.still; remained.'.'.There are man.t corners in a byre in which the germs of tho disoaso may remain, no. matter how carefully the premises -are disinfected, arid ..there are many agents'for the dissemination of those germs, of which flies aro certainly tho' most active. • : Mr. Geuin conchidos, with the following remarks"From the ' time I used . tho first injection:to the present day there has not been'a single instance, of'contagious abortion'in my herd. .. . 'On lny recommendation,' many cattle breeders havo"adopted tho process, and; in all cases with the same success."