The Press SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1941. Hydatids

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23445, 27 September 1941, Page 8

The Press SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1941. Hydatids

In an interview printed on the Farm Page of “ The Press ” this morning Sir Louis Barnett, chairman of the Hydatids Committee, shows that the measures so far adopted to check the spread of hydatid disease have lamentably failed and suggests that new ones may have to be devised or steps taken to enforce the old. It is true, probably, that the propaganda used was for a long time dull and obscure; but in recent years a vigorous effort has been made to impress on dog-owners ahd stock-owners the essential facts about the disease and about the precautions necessary. Enough has been written and circulated, through the press and otherwise, to justify the statement that nobody can any longer have the excuse of ignorance, if his dog carries the hydatid parasite or his sheep are infested and he has taken no action. But more has been done than to publicise the facts and to urge tht general and essential precaution of boiling all offal before feeding it to dogs. By regulations that came into effect at the beginning of 1939, every dog-owner pays an additional shilling when he registers it and receives a supply of arecoline hydrobromide tablets, with precise instructions for the dosage and administration of this tested agent against the parasite. But although some owners have regularly dosed their dogs and taken care not to feed them on raw offal, many more have neglected these precautions. Thoughtless or wilful, such neglect is too dangerous to be tolerated; and although compulsion is not easy to apply, as Sir Louis Barnett says, there are ways of making it felt, through prosecution and exemplary fine, for instance, and they should be adopted. The latest report of the Department of Agriculture emphasises the truth of Sir Louis Barnett’s charges. It says that during last year the incidence of hydatid disease in stock sent to the slaughter-houses showed little improvement. Certain lines of sheep were heavily infested, “ reflecting the carelessness of owners and “ shepherds in not dosing their dogs.” On the other hand, “a few owners have sent forward “ particularly clean lines of lambs and sheep. “On inquiry, it was found that the dogs had “ been dosed regularly and then fed on food “free from hydatid infection. Such instances " provide substantial proof, if any more proof is “necessary, that the remedy is simple and “ effective.” Those who fail to apply it may be selfish-or may be stupid; but they should not be too selfish to be unmoved when they are told that every year scores of persons contract hydatid disease, that one in seven dies of it, and that theirs is a share of the responsibility; and they should not be too stupid to be unmoved by the fact that a diseased sheep liver is a loss to them and a healthy one worth money. The cardinal fact, to be repeated until action is in full accord with it, is that the dog alone carries the worm which maintains the life cycle of the parasite of the disease in other animals and in maq. That is why the attack upon the disease can be, and must be, centrally aimed to keep the dog clear of it, and why the dog owner is responsible, if the disease is unchecked.