CATTLE TICK

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 10296, 6 February 1930, Page 4

CATTLE TICK

| ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TASK

’ The official attitude that cattle tick I is not regarded as a serious pest by the Department of Agriculture was pointed out in these columns previously, when it was announced that Mr W. C. Barry, Wellington district superintendent of stock, and Mr R. Wright, principal inspector for Wellington district, were on then* way to Gisborne and the Coast to inspect the cattle tick infested area there (says the Poverty Bay Herald). Despite this, however, it must be rather disquieting for Poverty Ba farmers to know- that ticks have been discovered in the B. or buffer area, in the Waikohu County. These discoveries, however, have been rare, and so far not more than one tick has been found on any one farm in this area. .. , This season was not the fast occasion on which such a discovery had been made, but the measures adopted by the Department of Agriculture have been successful enough to prevent the spread to any serious extent The spraying of the cattle on farms on which ticks have been discovered has been one of the main measures, the spraying being done on several occasions in order to prevent the I'.icks from settling on the animals, thus depriving the parasites 'of the blood-food needed for their i existence. The success of these means I was indicated in the fact that the spread had been minimised, and that on at least one property, on which ! a tick was found last season, no such discovery was made this summer.

i Information on the above lines was given to a reporter on Saturday by 1 Mr Barry, who repeated the assertion : that in the past the cattle tick had been a much exaggerated pest. It : was discovered, however, that al- : though it was an undesirable i parasite it did no real harm, except, a little puncturing of the hides, while i the tick was not a disease carrier, as were varieties found in some othier countries, such as in Australia ! Mr Barrv mentioned that specimens iof the New Zealand ticks had been 'sent to a laboratory in Queensland jin an endeavour to ascertain whether they were carriers of tick fever, but : tests made showed conclusively that I this was not so.

Mr Barry bad visited also the coastal district, where the infestation has been known to exist for about four years. In this connection he had nothing further to say than what was reported earlier in the week, except that all precautions were being taken to prevent its spread. Some of the long growth on a number of properties had been burned off with satisfactory results, but it was an almost impossible task to prevent the spread of the parasite for it could be carried in so many different ways. Only on one property on the Coast on which the licks had secured a good hold had they been known to have been completely eradicated, and this was by a means that was not always practicable. One farm on which the infestation was fairly prevalent remained unstocked for nine months. The result was that the ticks had no animals on which to gorge in order to complete their life circle. When the property was restocked no ticks were in evidence.

Although cattle tick was not regarded as a serious pest, the department was doing its utmost to control it, and farmers should be as anxious to do their share. To date, Mr Barry said, the farmers of the district had co-operated well with the department. He thought that in the future a number of the larger farmers would erect private dips of their own in just the same manner as they had constructed sheep dips. Some of the North Auckland men had done this, for not only was dipping a precaution against the further spread of the ticks, but the cattle when dipped were greatly improved in condition, being cleaned of lice at the same time.