Part 15 (1/2)

[Sidenote: 1. Stock may carry infection in two modes.]

E. _Disinfection of Live Stock._--1. Live cattle may carry infection in two ways: first, by being themselves infected with the plague and reproducing the poison; and secondly, by accidentally carrying the poison from other animals in a dormant state upon some part of their surface, their hair, and particularly their feet. These latter animals may therefore infect others without being or becoming themselves subjects of the plague. All persons therefore buying new animals, should disinfect them before allowing them to enter their premises. In a similar manner, if in a stable there has been a case of plague, the healthy or apparently healthy animals should all be disinfected.

[Sidenote: 2. Mode and means of disinfecting live stock.]

[Sidenote: Warming and refres.h.i.+ng drink.]

[Sidenote: Penned in the quarantine shed.]

2. The mode in which live animals may be disinfected, consists in was.h.i.+ng them with disinfectant solutions of such strength as will destroy the contagion without injuring the surface of the animal. A solution of two ounces of chloride of lime in a gallon of water, is a proper solution for was.h.i.+ng the coat of animals. A mixture of four ounces of Condy's red permanganate of potash fluid, with one gallon of water, is also a proper disinfectant solution. For full-sized cows and bullocks, &c., several gallons of either of these solutions should be used. Great care should be taken to keep the solution away from the eyes, nostrils, mouth, and tender parts. When the entire surface is washed and disinfected, all disinfectant is removed by the application of great quant.i.ties of clean tepid water to all parts. The animal is given a warming and refres.h.i.+ng drink, and is conducted by a clean attendant to the clean quarantine shed. There it should receive fodder both dry and green, and sop, and plenty of pure cold water, and be rubbed dry with whisks of straw and hay.

[Sidenote: F. The quarantine shed.]

[Sidenote: 1. Objects.]

[Sidenote: Both quarantine and surface disinfection are required.]

F. _The Quarantine Shed._--1. The quarantine shed is intended to keep the new and suspected cattle separate for a period of at least ten days, in order to afford the security, to be obtained by observation alone, that it is not actually infected with plague. While, therefore, disinfection of the surface of cattle removes one kind of danger, another, which cannot be removed, can only be kept circ.u.mscribed or penned in, and this is done by the quarantine shed. But the keeping of cattle in the quarantine shed would not disinfect its surface with certainty even during a much longer period than ten days; disinfection of the surface therefore cannot supply the precaution of the quarantine shed, and a rigorous quarantine cannot supply the effect of surface disinfection. Both precautions are necessary for perfect security, although either of them, without the other, obviates a particular kind and a certain amount of danger.

[Sidenote: 2. Management of the quarantine shed.]

2. The quarantine shed should be situated in an isolated part of the premises. All manure and urine from it should flow and be carried to a particular place separate and distinct from the common dung-heap, and be buried daily.

[Sidenote: Cleanliness.]

[Sidenote: Persons attending healthy stock not to attend quarantine shed, and vice versa.]

The utmost cleanliness should be observed in the shed. All tools, pails, currycombs, etc., used in this shed should be used in it exclusively and nowhere else. The person attending the quarantine shed should not be allowed to go into the shed where healthy stock is kept, or permitted to approach healthy stock. No person attending healthy stock should be permitted to approach quarantine cattle, or to go near or into the quarantine shed. But should unfortunately only one person be available for both duties, that person should be allowed to approach quarantine cattle only when clothed in the safety dress to be immediately described.

[Sidenote: G. The safety dress.]

[Sidenote: 1. Description.]

G. _The Safety Dress._--1. This consists of strong water-boots reaching up to the knees, well greased all over; of a waterproof coat, b.u.t.toned close all the way up in front, and closing tightly round the neck and wrists. The head is to be covered with a cap which takes the hair well in.

[Sidenote: 2. Persons who should use the safety dress.]

[Sidenote: To disinfect before leaving suspected or infected premises.]

2. Every person having occasion to visit sheds in which there is diseased cattle, or suspected cattle, or quarantine cattle, should be provided with the above dress, put it on when entering the place, take it off when leaving the place, and have it disinfected immediately. This precaution should be strictly observed by all inspectors, all veterinarians, or others called in to attend sick cattle, by all dealers and butchers entering sheds, yards, or meadows, for the purpose of sale or purchase, and by all other persons coming on the premises on business in connexion with cattle.

[Sidenote: 3. Strangers not to enter sheds except in disinfected safety dresses.]

[Sidenote: Proprietors of cattle to keep safety dresses.]

3. The owners of stock should not allow any strangers to enter their sheds, yards, or meadows, except in disinfected safety-dresses; and in case this should give rise to difficulties, they will do well to have themselves one or two such safety-dresses at hand, and to cause all persons whose business compels them to enter their sheds, to leave their own boots behind, and to put on the long boots, waterproof-coat, and special cap. Only thus can they hope to exclude all ordinary and obvious chances of infection from their previously healthy sheds, yards, and meadows.

[Sidenote: H. Measures to be taken where plague has appeared.]