Friday, April 3, 2020

Censors of Nature


The current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic 
brought to mind this blog entry originally published in 2015. 
 I wonder if there is a message here for us humans?


In the 1830s a devastating disease of swine called Hog Cholera or Swine fever apparently arose spontaneously on a hog farm in Ohio. For over a century this was one of the leading causes of disease in swine and as late as the 1960s was costing the swine industry in excess of $50 million a year.

In 1907 a vaccine had been developed. It involved injecting a little dose of the virus along with some hyper- immune serum from hogs previously vaccinated for the disease. In 1951 the virulent live virus component was replaced with a modified live virus vaccine but still required the use of the serum. Improper use of these live vaccines contributed to many iatrogenic outbreaks of the disease.

For many years the income derived from vaccinating swine for Hog Cholera was the financial mainstay of most veterinary practices in areas with large swine populations. In 1961 the USDA mandated a Hog Cholera eradication program and all live or modified live vaccines were banned in 1969. The nation was declared free of Hog Cholera in 1978. This was hailed as a great success, but unfortunately, it wasn’t long before other, heretofore almost unknown, virus diseases of swine such as pseudo-rabies began to cost the swine industry almost as many dollars as had Hog Cholera before eradication.

Even if successful, vaccinations only protect against one particular organism and if the immune system is already compromised— malnutrition, stress, mineral deficiency, etc.,—the animals are easy prey for any other virus or germ lurking out there. As illustrated above; when one virus is removed either by vaccination or eradication (Hog Cholera) the next virus in line (Pseudo-rabies) stepped up and functioned as a “Censor of Nature”.

Nature tends to eliminate or censor anything not meeting her standards of excellence. Weeds are attracted to a sick soil in an attempt to remedy the imbalances of minerals and organic matter in the soil. Insects are attracted to sick crops as one of nature’s methods to eliminate sub-standard plants. Germs and viruses are attracted to sick animals (and humans), to recycle inferior products.

The key to good health is not in a bottle of vaccine or antibiotic but in good nutrition and common sense holistic management of the livestock.

                 This item was originally posted to a previous issue of Doc' Holliday's Blog on 12 May, 2015



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