ANIMAL DISEASES

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21992, 16 January 1937, Page 14

ANIMAL DISEASES

EFFECT OF DEFICIENCY OF MINERALS VETERINARIAN'S REVIEW (t'KESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, January 15. Attempts made to show the' results of an actual deficiency of calcium or phosphorus or of the lack of balance of those minerals were traced before thu Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science to-day by Dr. C. S. M. Hopkirk, of the Veterinary Laboratory, Wallaceville, in a paper on "Calcium and' Phosphorus Deficiency in the Domestic Animals of New Zealand." Dr. Hopkirk said that osteonbrosia, once common among draught horses, was now of minor importance except perhaps in racehorses, and Waihi disease was now rare because of the increasing use of phosphatic manures and bone meal licks. It had been suggested that the grass staggers and milk fever seen in the Waikato might have been a result of the lack of balance in minerals—a high phosphate against a low calcium. Some cases of sterility had been traced to mineral deficiency and the scouring of cattle on swamp areas had been found associated with very low calcium and high phosphate proportions. Sheep rickets was common in growing animals kept on green cereals or turnip tops. In a ewe, similar feeding on sorrel would set up a form of hypo-calcaemia, similar to milk fever in cows. Dealing with pigs and poultry, Dr. Hopkirk said that zinc poisoning, had been found to upset the calcification of long bones in ■ pigs, causing the erosion of the cartilage and arthritis. Very little trouble would be noted with poultry unless tho birds were deprived of oyster-shell grit, in which case lameness would occur.