DANGER TO HUMAN HEALTH

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21745, 30 March 1936, Page 10

DANGER TO HUMAN HEALTH

—_ 4INCIDENCE OF HYDATIH DISEASE

LOSS IN VALUE OP SHEEP AND CATTLE

The seriousness of prevalent hydatid diiease to a‘country like New ' Zealand' in whose economy Jiye , stock was so important, was tpointed out by Sir Louis Barnett, emeritus? ;. nrofessor of surgery, in the ‘ sity of Otago, in an interview with “The Preps” last night. The danger to human health, he thought was so,, obvious as not to need spoken em- . phasis. ■ Loss in the value of sheep and 1 cattle infected with the disease was considerable—so considerable, indeed. that it had not yet been sufficiently realised. Probably it amounted in the aggregate to more than £IOO,OOO a year. Sir Louis spoke, of the increasing importance of liver as an item of diet, and of ‘ the increasing overseas market lor liver. In an otherwise healthy carcase the liver was very often affected. Compared with the value. of a carcase the value of a liver .sr.might seem inconsiderable; but V when livers were condemned by the . million it was a very different mat- -

ter economically. Besides that, the/. / country could not afford to miss - substantial export commodity. YetV . there was the danger that New Zea- - -'r land, if the disease were hot stayed, i might come by an unsavoury name V" if imperfect livers were put on other markets. -

Education in Facts ■ ' Recently established at the Otago Medical School was a department 5 . for hydatid research and prevention. An intensive educational cam- . paign into the mode of conveyance ] of the disease to human beings from the special hydatid tape-worm inhabiting the intestines of dogs and; stock was part of the prevention/ work; Large coloured posters were , being prepared and distributed,; , throughout the Dominion. There I had been requests for them already,} from other parts of the world;

With each of these was sent a j leaflet giving fuller information and ' instruction about • necessary precau- 4 - 1 tions. The Department of Agricul- v,-. ture had requisitioned 30,000 of the.,' leaflets, intending to send one to* * each sheep farmer in the country,.* Assuming that the information was*followed, Sir Louis Barnett said, ; there should, in a few years, be a;very decided drop in the incidence of the disease in New Zealand.

In laboratory work at the Otago , Medical School efforts were beingmade to try to discover simple, suitable remedies to eliminate the 1 parasite from the intestines of coun-. try dogs. It was necessary to specify c. Q country dogs, Sir Louis Barnett ob—, served, since it was rare to find the •. ... trouble in town dogs. They were „ - not fed with the raw offal of sheep. - which might be considered normal -

food for country dogs. Importance to Canterbury ■ Time was being given also to find-

ing methods of destroying the para- v site in human beings and in stock.or of making them immune from • a’ttack. This particular department,, 5 •

like so many others of medical re-'-search, was just now inadequately * - supported financially, Sir Louis Bar- . nett said. Canterbury, whether or not the people were aware of it, was aspect- - ally dependent upon the result ot this move to cope with the hydatid menace. In Canterbury, at the pre- „

sent time, hydatid disease was more- ’ M . prevalent than in any other part 01 ’ New Zealand, or in any part of Aus- <.y tralia. Its incidence here, in was only slightly less then it was in Argentina or Uruguay—two lanwr where as a disease it was proverb^.w