UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
Agricultural Experiment Station
BULLETIN NO. 152
CONTAGIOUS ABORTION OF COWS
By W. J. MacNEAL In Coöperation with
HERBERT W. MUMFORD
URBANA, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER, 1911
Summary of Bulletin No. 152
1. The existence of a specific contagious disease causing abortionin cows has been recognized for a long time, and it is certainthat the disease known abroad as infectious or contagious abortionis also prevalent in the United States.
2. The infectious agent is a bacterium first described by theDanish investigators, Bang and Stribolt. This microörganism hasbeen isolated from aborting cows in various European countriesand in the United States.
3. Bacteriological examination of afterbirths from abortingcows at this Station revealed the presence of this germ.
4. To eradicate the disease from a herd, the affected cowsshould be isolated, and their genital passages cleansed once or twicedaily with an antiseptic solution until all discharge has ceased, whenthey may be returned to the herd; all infectious material (afterbirthand discharges) should be burned; infected stalls should becleaned and disinfected; the sheath of the herd bull should becleansed with a disinfectant solution before and after service, anda separate, clean bull should be used for heifers and clean cows.
CONTAGIOUS ABORTION OF COWS
By W. J. MacNEAL, Assistant Chief in Bacteriology, in CoöperationWith HERBERT W. MUMFORD, Chief in Animal Husbandry
INTRODUCTION
The premature discharge of the products of conception fromthe uterus is a not infrequent occurrence among domestic animals,and doubtless various factors may from time to time operate in itscausation. For a long time, however, practical husbandmen haverecognized an epizoötic or contagious kind of abortion, a definitetransmissible disease in which the loss of the fetus is the mostprominent characteristic. The transmissibility of contagious abortionof cows appears to have been demonstrated experimentally forthe first time by Brauer. Experimental transmission has been performedby a number of investigators subsequently, the work ofNocard (1886) furnishing conclusive evidence upon this point.
It is certain that a disease, or possibly more than one disease, ofthis nature is a source of serious loss to the live stock industry inthe United States, and there can no longer be any doubt that a considerablepart of this loss is due to the definite specific disease prevalenton the continent of Europe and in England, and known asContagious, Infectious, or Epizoötic Abortion. The purpose ofthis bulletin is the brief presentation of some of the facts concerningthe cause, prevention and restriction of this disease, which havebeen established by modern investigation, for the information ofmen engaged in live stock production.
BACTERIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS ELSEWHERE
Nocard carried out the first extensive bacteriological investigationof contagious abortion. In microscopic preparations of thediseased placenta he was able to recognize numerous short bacilliand micrococci. These were also found in