CATTLE TICK AND HEREFORD CATTLE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 7564, 7 May 1919, Page 8

CATTLE TICK AND HEREFORD CATTLE.

'To the. Editor.)

Sir, —In your issue of Frithiy appears a report from the Board of Agriculture in reference to cattle tick in New Ze-t----liiud. Having hn<l considerable experience with the cattle tick in Australia I should deem it a favour if you -will allow me through tho medium of your columns to throw a little light on the subject as the tick foun:l in New Zealand is identical with the tick in Australia. England, Africa, America and the "VVe.st Tndies. Jxodes ricimis and ixodes punc tata are the two ticks in Britain which aro capable of conveying the disease known as liaemojrlobinnria. A toxine in the circulation causes the red corpiiscirs lo break uft and there is a disposition to disintegration' duo to some bacterium*. The Australian tick was njentjired :.y Mr. Pound, the Oneenfilanrf Ejicteriolnriist, as ixodes bovis, whirfi is possibly identical with ixodes rininus, as the latter was Kent home and proved to ho identir.il with the ixodes rieinus in "Rntsiin and appear to be the same in New Zealand, as reported in vonr paner. Tnresti?rntions conducted i". f^o^+ii Africn. America. Australia find Jrelind have V-d to the identification of red water and Texas fever as bomg due to the bibos of ticks. ?(fr. Stockman, now hrarl (or at 'east w«<s formerly) of the \~etcrinarv department, of the Eii'/lish Board oiAsricnlture carried out most exhau?itive .oxpenf-ents when <.rr'-in<i; rli? Cnrtp Government, and proved that the Enjr lish tick ivodes rieinus was capable of f-onveyip^: the African disease. The tic]; 'horself is jufectod by sucking the blo>i of an animal having the malady anii then infects who in she bites, it has been proved that the larvae can inherit and pass on the disease. Mr. Stockman's U'xperiments have been confirmed by Professor Mettam in Ireland, but an j unsatisfied curiosity remains to ask how ! it is that ojie 'ii?ld produces it and the j n&xt does not, and how a gate can sufficiently interposH. We have certainty known such sharp divisions between n feetive and non-infective fireas and the authorities sibovo quoted have not I>p-I.ii able to explain tlie circumstance, but the writer will attempt to throw som'* 1 light on* it (derived froni Australian experience) wli^n concluding 'in South Africa the necessary interval for tick^ to die out in vacated lands is estimated at lo months. Ticks are very tenacious o'J life and resist summer and tropical i hea.D and winter cold, having been sent |lrom Australia t-> London in a pill-box where they weiv confined for mont'i? and were apparently strong, although flat for -want of i'oixl. In Western Australia tiie lick cattle that are shipped 1 from WyndliaTJ' aro nnlo.-ided into *r>e sea by Jiioans of a grasy shoot and subnierg'tl by the impact and when ap pearing on the surface aro conducted 1:y l>oats to tho quarantino area to be arti licially fed. Experiments (subsequent to the above treatment) of plunging the cattle into arsenical dips have fail?d to kill ail the ticks, hut some of the cattle, and others to ho condemned as nnIn for consumption when slaughtered. The female tick when sbe is. fecundatel measurs half an inch and on a. white be.ist at at a distance the ticks resembla clusters of gra.pes on the twist flank nnd bdiin-l tlio shoulders (on the girthpits) and arm-pits. Sumc idea of the rapidity of mereav^ may be gathered h? the fact that tho tick l:-!,vs ii]) to 40,0n') eggs, aft-or that she is nothing but a s.hell and is no more ; the male is a little chap and is not held responsible !i;r conveying tick fever. The danger "f mortality in cattle is introducing clean j cuttle into tick infected, areas, as cattle i bred on infected country arc immuirj and appear to thrive. In fact, I know of ono case where a Hereford bull took the champion pr'zo in Brisbane "i years in succession, hailing from "Bellevuo/ on the Brisbane Kiver, whidi is tick in-i'oj-tPd. and tho hull was bred on ck>:>n country. Jr. Quoensland, stoc-kown--rs inno^ulate agn.inst tick lever with l>!oc;l taken from bleeders immune lo th-_< n::'lady, but niy contention is that uiin ticks ,'ipnear in an\- couiitry thf sooner tlm whole country is tick infested tie I sooner will mortality cease. Nothing ' can rid the pasture of tho pe^t as long a:- there are hosts, as wlr.m the eggs '"c- ' lease the young licks they are extroni-'iv ■ active and travel very quickly in K r>ar<h j cf any h"st iji tin? first place, wh'cli will i

y*. as ciUTirrs to unfortunate cattle. fh«ir ha! it ah for r^nrorlurtion. Tn 10M2 I imported sonic Tie-&'iwi cat-t^" to Au<-

tralia. and two of the bulls '"Bugler" and "Spark XXXII." were sold to Mr. iiiimley Hill (Queensland) who put iliem on tick mlestecl country, having innoculated them with blood from a carefully selected bleeder. Both these failed to react time after time, and proved they were immediately immune. ;Vir. Hill shipped two consignments of Shorthorns to Kirmbcrley, all of which died. He then shipped Hereford^. They ail lived. I will leave the readers of your paper to draw their own conolujyion whether this is any solution of the problem which Mr. Stockman and Pro- | lessor Mettam were unable to solve.—l

am, etc., JOSEPH CARWARDINE.