Contagious Abortion of Cows   By: Ward J. MacNeal

Agricultural Experiment Station

BULLETIN NO. 152

CONTAGIOUS ABORTION OF COWS

BY W. J. MACNEAL IN COÖPERATION WITH HERBERT W. MUMFORD

[Illustration]

URBANA, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER, 1911

SUMMARY OF BULLETIN NO. 152

1. The existence of a specific contagious disease causing abortion in cows has been recognized for a long time, and it is certain that the disease known abroad as infectious or contagious abortion is also prevalent in the United States.

2. The infectious agent is a bacterium first described by the Danish investigators, Bang and Stribolt. This microörganism has been isolated from aborting cows in various European countries and in the United States.

3. Bacteriological examination of afterbirths from aborting cows at this Station revealed the presence of this germ.

4. To eradicate the disease from a herd, the affected cows should be isolated, and their genital passages cleansed once or twice daily with an antiseptic solution until all discharge has ceased, when they may be returned to the herd; all infectious material (afterbirth and discharges) should be burned; infected stalls should be cleaned and disinfected; the sheath of the herd bull should be cleansed with a disinfectant solution before and after service, and a separate, clean bull should be used for heifers and clean cows.

CONTAGIOUS ABORTION OF COWS

BY W. J. MACNEAL, ASSISTANT CHIEF IN BACTERIOLOGY, IN COÖPERATION WITH HERBERT W. MUMFORD, CHIEF IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

INTRODUCTION

The premature discharge of the products of conception from the uterus is a not infrequent occurrence among domestic animals, and doubtless various factors may from time to time operate in its causation. For a long time, however, practical husbandmen have recognized an epizoötic or contagious kind of abortion, a definite transmissible disease in which the loss of the fetus is the most prominent characteristic. The transmissibility of contagious abortion of cows appears to have been demonstrated experimentally for the first time by Brauer. Experimental transmission has been performed by a number of investigators subsequently, the work of Nocard (1886) furnishing conclusive evidence upon this point.

It is certain that a disease, or possibly more than one disease, of this nature is a source of serious loss to the live stock industry in the United States, and there can no longer be any doubt that a considerable part of this loss is due to the definite specific disease prevalent on the continent of Europe and in England, and known as Contagious, Infectious, or Epizoötic Abortion. The purpose of this bulletin is the brief presentation of some of the facts concerning the cause, prevention and restriction of this disease, which have been established by modern investigation, for the information of men engaged in live stock production.

BACTERIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS ELSEWHERE

Nocard carried out the first extensive bacteriological investigation of contagious abortion. In microscopic preparations of the diseased placenta he was able to recognize numerous short bacilli and micrococci. These were also found in the amniotic fluid. He obtained pure cultures of these two organisms, but failed to induce abortion upon inoculating these cultures into other animals. Neither of the germs obtained in culture could therefore be regarded as the causative agent in the disease.