PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVI, Issue 905, 13 July 1861, Page 4

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

WHAT IS IT—WHAT ITS PBOBABLE EFFECTS ?

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times.

Sib,—This important and vital question, in which squatters and farmers in particular, and the colony in general, are so seriously interested, having arrived at that stage when some prompt and decisive step may avert the threatened evil, the description and opinion of one who has seen the disease raging throughout the Gape Colony and the disastrous results attending it, may assist the Executive of this and the other provinces in coming to a speedy conclusion as to the best and only safe course to be adopted to prevent such a calamity being introduced into this colony from Australia. Pleuro-pneumonia or " lung sickness " as the Dutch squatters at the Cape term it, is a contagious disease of the lungs of cattle (bullocks, bulls, and cows) defying all remedies that have yet been tried to cure or to prevent it spreading. There are some people at the Cape who have a slight faith in inoculating a healthy animal about half way down the tail (which frequently drops off afterwards) with matter taken from the lungs of a dead lung-sick beast; this is

looked upon as a chance only of saving unaffected cattle, but as many thousands that have been subjected to the above treatment have subsequently died, there is not much, if any, reliance to be placed on it. .;---.••'.,.-,.----;,'• -.v^v .. -.-.:■..:/

I believe it to be utterly useless to appoint inspectors to examine imported cattle, as certainly in the first stages of the disease there are no out* ward or apparent indications of its existence, and even in its later stages, after it has probably lain dormant for three or four weeks, the first symptoms are scarcely perceptible to the most experienced and practised eye, but when it once shows, the progress in very rapid, the animal avoids the herd, droops its head, the eye becomes dull, and the breathing irregular; this lasts'for a few days, when the creature is no longer able to stand, and gradually sinks; on opening the body'the lungs are found a mass of matter.. Consequently stock may be landed here from Australia to all appearances healthy, bat in two or three weeks the mistake is irremediable, and then the only effective way of dealing with the malady would be to slaughter every head of cattle throughout the colony and begin again by importing

clean stock. Such a severe measure may possibly

amuse some stockholders, but I think they will allow that I have not exaggerated the evils of the scourge when I state I have personally known several wealthy stock farmers at the Cape possessing one or two thousand head of cattle, the whole of which

they have lost in a few months; and twelve months ago it was the firm conviction there, that this virulent disease would not stop its ravages whilst a single bullock remained in the country. I leave you to imagine the ruin it has brought to the doors of many a wealthy man. I myself have seen dead cattle lying about the roads and country in all directions. Sheep farmers have been known to come down to the towns and buy three team or spaa of oxen, after losing all their own, in the hope of saving one by the time they arrived up country to bring down the wool. :

It is believed that this great disaster was caused by importing into the colony a diseased bull from Holland about sis years ago. The Kaffirs in Kaffirland inflicted the penalty of death upon any native who brought a bullock over the borders from the Cape Colony, but notwithstanding such a rigid precaution the unconquerableand insatiable foe found them out.

The only effectual means to prevent pleuropneumonia breaking out in New Zealand is to put a stop entirely and immediately to importation of cattle from the Australian Colonies and Tasmania into any of the provinces of the colon;* and if it is not now too late, and we are successful in keeping it off, I draw the attention of stockholders and farmers to the market they wouiS have for cattle in Australia, which no doubt will suffer in a similar manner to the Cape. Already the Australians are alarmed, and many are selling their stock at very low prices to jobbers, who have recently shipped two or three cargoes to Otago and Invercargill. I mentioned these facts to interested parties three or four months since, but now I think it imperative on me to do so publicly. I seriously warn the colonists to be on the alert and consider the importance of this subject as one closely allied to the prosperity and welfare of their adopted country.—l am Sir, yours, &c, A TRAVELLER.