Keep Tuberculosis Out of Your Swine
A dense text poster with three photographs of hogs and cattle sets out how tuberculosis spreads to swine and lists preventive steps: pasteurize milk fed to hogs, keep hogs from untested dairy cows, and clear infected herds. The financial-loss framing ('costs hog raisers millions of dollars annually') and the word 'plague' supply its fear appeal, alongside a free bulletin offer.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1917
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Health, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War I
- Regime
- Wilson administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 4 (U.S. Food Administration), World War I Posters (NAID 512439), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
U.S. Department of Agriculture. National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-138.
Text on the object
KEEP TUBERCULOSIS OUT OF YOUR SWINE THIS PREVENTABLE DISEASE COSTS HOG RAISERS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ANNUALLY INSPECTION AFTER SLAUGHTER SHOWED THAT ONE OUT OF FOUR OF THESE SEEMINGLY HEALTHY HOGS HAD TUBERCULOSIS. HOGS MAY APPEAR TO BE THRIFTY AND WELL AND YET HARBOR THE DISEASE. FOLLOW UP YOUR SLAUGHTERHOUSE RECORDS. Certain Packing Houses and Buyers are Beginning to Avoid Districts Where Tuberculosis is Common, or to Buy Hogs Subject to Post-mortem Examination, with any Loss Falling on the Producer HOW TO PREVENT THIS COSTLY PLAGUE Cook or Pasteurize All Milk or Milk Products Fed to Hogs Raw milk from a tuberculous cow will sooner or later certainly carry the germs of tuberculosis to your hogs. A little care will prevent this. [caption] TUBERCLE BACILLI IN RAW MILK, BUTTERMILK, OR WHEY ARE PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS. TUBERCULOSIS STARTING IN A YOUNG PIG IS LIABLE TO BECOME SERIOUS AND GENERAL BEFORE THE ANIMAL IS READY FOR MARKET AND SEND THE HOG TO THE FERTILIZER TANK. Scald all skimmed milk, buttermilk, or whey. Even boiling will not lessen their feeding value. Either scalding, boiling, or pasteurizing—that is, heating to 145° F. and holding at that temperature for 30 minutes—will kill all germs of tuberculosis and also render harmless stray germs of many other animal diseases. No farmer, unless his herd is tuberculin tested and free from tuberculosis, should feed his skimmed milk raw to his swine. He is taking an unnecessary risk of having them rejected at the slaughterhouse. Raw skimmed milk and buttermilk from creameries and whey from cheese factories are particularly dangerous. If there happens to be only one tuberculous herd on the creamery route, the skimmed milk from that farm may spread tubercle bacilli through all the milk in the skimmed-milk tank. Cook all raw milk taken home from the creamery. Better yet, join with your neighbors in insisting that the creamery shall pasteurize skimmed milk before it is delivered. Such pasteurization prevents the creamery from becoming a distributing point for animal diseases, the germs of which get into milk. If your creamery delivers pasteurized skimmed milk, see that your own cans are sterilized before you take your share. The little raw milk left in your own cans may contaminate the pasteurized milk furnished by the creamery. [… remaining text omitted: centre-column paragraph on raw garbage and offal] Keep Hogs Away From Dairy Cows Not Tuberculin Tested The droppings of tuberculous cows, especially of those in which the disease is of long standing, are almost certain to contain large numbers of tubercle bacilli. [caption] IF ANY OF THESE COWS HAVE TUBERCULOSIS, THE HOGS FOLLOWING THEM AND ROOTING IN BEDDING AND DROPPINGS ARE CERTAIN TO GET THE DISEASE. Hogs having access to manure or bedding from such cows are almost certain to get the disease. The safest plan is to keep your hogs absolutely away from your dairy cattle unless your herd has been tuberculin tested and is known to be free from tuberculosis. The risk more than offsets any feeding advantage. [… remaining text omitted: right-column paragraph on steers] GET RID OF TUBERCULOUS HOGS—START WITH A CLEAN HERD [… remaining text omitted: body paragraphs of the lower panel] Send for Farmers' Bulletin No. 781, "Tuberculosis of Hogs." This Bulletin, which the Department of Agriculture will send free on application to any farmer, contains a complete discussion by expert veterinarians and pathologists of the nature and financial importance of this disease. It gives methods for detecting the disease and simple directions for preventing infection of herds and getting rid of the disease once it has gotten into your swine. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON, D. C.
Body text is very small; a few caption words are uncertain. Order: left, centre, right column. Omitted to fit the 4000-character limit: two column paragraphs (centre: raw garbage; right: steers) and the lower panel's body paragraphs; headlines kept. Tiny lower-right imprint illegible.
