FACIAL ECZEMA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 11

FACIAL ECZEMA

ESTIMATE OF LOSSES

“COULD BE CUT DOWN BY SEVENTY PER CENT.”

Mr J. S. Jessep, of Gisborne, made some interesting observations at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Sheepowners’ Federation at Wellington on Wednesday on the recent outbreak of facial eczema in the Auckland province. From them it is reasonable to suppose that the losses reported have been very much over-estimated. Mr Jessep said that there had been three serious outbreaks of facial eczema. The first had been in 1910, the second in 1935, and the third this year. As East Coast Commissioner, he was directly farming more than 100,000 acres in the Wairoa, Poverty Bay, and Tolaga Bay districts, which ran about 100,000 sheep and 15,000 head of cattle. In 1935, when facial eczema broke out, the farm supervisor, Mr H. Symes, took immediate steps to cope with it, with fairly successful results. During the present year, with the experience of three years ago, the same course was followed, with the result that, although many areas of East Coast Trust lands had been badly affected, the losses were nothing like what reports would lead one to believe. The disease, as officers of the Department of Agriculture had pointed out, was certainly not contagious; It was a liver disease, how caused he could not say. Certainly the rapid growth of feed was one of the main factors. It was quite possible that excessive heat had some bearing on the question. However, that was for scientists to decide. But one thing was quite c r . tain, that sheep could be very badly affected with facial eczema and yet be quite sound the following season. This had been proved on East Coast Trust lands in 1935, when ewes which were so badly affected that scabs formed on their heads had to be cleaned up by dipping them in a strong solution of kerol and water, were set aside, marked and bred from the following year with a 100 per cent, lambing result. Alarming reports had been made concerning sheep in the Waikato that could do no good to the New Zealand meat trade. The outbreak had certainly been severe, but the reports circulated by the press that the loss exceeded 1,250,000 in the Auckland district was a gross exaggeration. In the entire Auckland sheep district. stretching from Cape Runaway. Taupo, Taumaranui, and across to the West Coast and up to the far north of Auckland, there were only 3,800,000 sheep in all. In the districts badly affected there were not more than I, and. allowing for losses amongst cattle, the estimate of 1.250,000 could be cut down by at least 70 per cent. Mr Jessep stated that he had had some experience in the frozen _ meat trade, and could say without hesitation I that many good ewes had been killed I

that were not seriously affected by facial eczema. The procedure followed, he continued, by the farm managers of the East Coast Trust, was that as soon as a sheep was discovered to be affected it was dosed strongly for the liver, and then put into any kind of rough feed or fed on hay. The outbreak of rash on the face and head was an after-effect, and could be dealt with easily.