ax. Such protective
serum may be produced in the various susceptible animals.
For immunization purposes it is advisable to use the simultaneous method;
that is, both the spore vaccine and the anthrax serum should be injected.
It is desirable to divide the herd to be treated into groups of ten or
twelve and inject, first, each animal of the group with the serum,
following this with the injection of the spore vaccine. The serum should be
injected on one side, either on the neck or back of the shoulder, and the
spore vaccine on the other side, injections being made subcutaneously. In
herds in which the disease has already made its appearance it is necessary
to take the temperatures of all the animals and to subject to the
simultaneous vaccination only those that show no rise in temperature. All
others should be given the serum-alone treatment in doses varying in
accordance with the severity of the symptoms manifested by the individual
animals. If the examination reveals a considerable number of infections, it
is advisable to use the serum alone for all the animals, and in three or
four weeks to revaccinate by the simultaneous method. The dosage should
depend on the potency of the serum, serum of a high potency naturally being
most desirable. Thus serum in 10 cubic centimeter doses for large animals,
and 3 to 5 cubic centimeter doses for smaller ones, has been found to be
effective in producing a temporary immunity.
As anthrax is entirely different from blackleg, vaccine for the latter does
not act as a preventive against the former.
ANTHRAX IN MAN (MALIGNANT PUSTULE, OR CARBUNCLE).
Anthrax may be transmitted to man in handling the carcasses and hides of
animals which have succumbed to the disease. The infection usually takes
place through some abrasion or slight wound of the skin into which the
anthrax spores, or bacilli, find their way. The point of inoculation
appears at first as a dark point or patch, compared by some writers to the
sting of a flea. After a few hours this is changed into a reddened pimple,
which bears on its summit, usually around a hair, a yellowish blister, or
vesicle, which later on becomes red or bluish in color. The burning
sensation in this stage is very great. Later this pimple enlarges, its
center becomes dry, gangrenous, and is surrounded by an elevated,
discolored swelling. The center becomes drier and more leatherlike, and
sinks in as the whole increases in size. The skin around this
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