SWINE FEVER.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20860, 20 May 1933, Page 11

SWINE FEVER.

JOHNSONVILLE OUTBREAK. 1147 PIGS TO BE DESTROYED. (pr.ISS ASSOCIATION TSUCQXAX.) WELLINGTON, May 19. The number of pigs in the Johnsonville district destroyed or awaiting destruction through infection by swine fever or by contact with affected animals, totals 1147. Sis hundred have already been destroyed. The Department of Agriculture has issued an appeal to all farmers immediately to notify the appearance of any disease in stock. The discovery of two dead pigs on the foreshore at Point Howard this morning gives ground to the fear that the carcases were brought down the Hutt river, indicating the possibility of part of the Hutt Valley being infected. In a more complete investigation of the valley and Makara, however, the department discovered no sign of the disease. No trouble has been experienced with the 45 relief workers engaged in digging trenches for the burial of the pigs. The officials at the Department of Agriculture's veterinary laboratory at Wallaceville have been very active during the last two weeks. Before the outbreak of fever was definitely proclaimed, a number of pigs were inoculated with the blood of suspected animals. Typical swine fever was set up in the experimentali animal. Blood samples are taken from pigs on any farm where there is the slightest suspicion of the presence of the disease. These are used to inoculate experimental animals, thus revealing if the fever is present.