TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24535, 7 April 1945, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL

SUCCESS IN AMERICA “INCIDENCE OF BOVINE UNDER : HALF PER CENT” Although the incidence of tuberculosis in dairy herds in Canterbury is far from being, as severe or as widespread as many city residents believe it to be, there is plenty of scope for, a campaign against the disease. Ah arresting article On the subject of stock disease prevention appears in an American farm paper, in which it is. stated that the incidence of bovine tuberculosis is under'one half of one . per cent, in the United States, The following statement indicates the methods by which stock diseases have been largely excluded from United States stock life:— Addressing the Veterinary War Conference of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Chief E. C. Auchter, of the Agricultural Research Administration, spoke of the achievements credited to the American veterinary service since the turn bf the century. Mention was made by him of (1) the rigid quarantine against, and the stamping out. of, foot-and-mouth .disease, the presence of which among American -live stock would have made appalling inroads in the world's food supply; (2) the eradication of sheep scab in the range country, the source of domestic mutton and wool; (3) the almost complete extermination of cattle-tick fever in., the south' and south-west, which made possible the development of a vast live stock empire previously hindered, by that disease; (4) the discovery of an effective vaccination aga|nst swine fever“that enabled American farmers to raise nearly 120,000,000 head, of pigs in 1943; (5) the reduction of bovine tuberculosis down to less than one-half of one per cent, throughout the United States after 23 years’work, which stepped up and stabilised meat and milk production. (6) The development of an effective vaccine against equine encephalomyelitis, a disease related tb several encephalitides of man; (7) pullorum disease control on a nation-wide scope; (8)- discovery of strain 19. vaccine which bpened theway:to the'control of bovine, porcine, caprine, and human brucellosis; and (9) discovery of the anthelminthic properties of phenothiazine through which the more important worm parastisma 6f live stock are being curtailed. CHICORY GROWING OLD CANTERBURY INDUSTRY “Reader” writes as follows: In the December issue of a Government publication an article appears on the growing of chicory. It is somewhat astray in one Important fact. The article states that chicory has been grown in; Inch Clutha. South Otago. for upwards of 40 years, which Is correct, and continues that in recent , years areas have been grown in the environs of Christchurch. “Recently’ 'is an elastic and indefinite term; but chicory has been'grown in Canterbury for , the last 58 years, so that its cultivation here has not been very recent. Most of us getting on in life can remember years ago the tall chicory works on the Lincoln road, an evidence of the .extent of the industry many years ago. In another issue of the publication the writer of an article makes the statement that "totara” (black pine) often replaces the rimu. It should be unnecessary to add, our correspondent says, that black bine .is matal and red pine is rimu; He concludes with the statement that ■ accuracy should be aimed at in Government publications, particularly if they are of an instructional nature. NEW ZEALAND MEAT BRITISH TRIBUTE TO QUALITY Not only is New Zealand getting appreciation in Britain, for ■ maintaining the volume of meat • supplied; to that market, but it is also building up an enhanced reputation, for quality. This statement is made in a report recived by the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board > from its- London office, which quotes highly complimeptery statements made by a West of England S bobrd’s representative in Britain adds that the testimony to New Zealand meat is in i his opinion well merited by the consistency with which the standards of quality, the grading and general handling of the Dominion’s meat '< products have ... been maintained during the period when some relaxations would (have been excusable. “BUt on the. -whole,” the report concluded, "there has been little, if any, cause for complaint, and New Zealand might rightly claim-to have maintained pre-war standards to a higher degree than any other exporting country. This, I have reason to believe, would be corroborated by the Ministry of Food surveyors, who inspect all imports.” SEASON’S MEAT KILLINGS substantial increase The. details of export killings oftmeat prepared by the New’Zealand Meat Producers’ Board show the, position of the present season up to March 17. As the nearest compilation of. the returns last season was to March 11, the statistics of the two seasons’are not on this occasion strictly comparable, but'there is adequate evidence that this season’s lag In killings of lambs and sheep due to retention of stock on the farms for the purpose of increasing the weight Is now being over-, taken. Export killings at meat works to March 17, with the figures to March 11, 1944 in parenthesis, were as follows:

Some time ago the Commonwealth Government sent 50 railway engines to Western Australia to help to transport wheat to the Eastern States. Hie varying railway gauges in the States made the transport costly business, and that it was undertaken in face of labour difficulties and costs indicates theacuteness of the wheat position >in the principal states. The wheat first of all was brought into Kafeoorlie from West Australian wheat belts on a 3ft 6in gauge, then it was transferred to the transcontinental railway with a 4ft 8 Jin gauge and carried to Port Pirie, in South Australia; then the wheat was transferred to the sft 3in Vic-’’ torian gauge and taken on to Albury, on the Victorian-New South Wales border; and then it got its final transfer (provided it had not to go - into interior Queensland) to the 4ft BJin gauge in New South Wales. 'An English-bred Hereford bull sold recently at Buenos Aires for 50,000 pesos (£3100). The price, however, was substantially exceeded at the Perth bull sales recently, when £4500 (a record) was paid for the champion Aber-deen-Angus bull, 13 months old, from the Harviestoun stud. He was bought for England, Two other prices also exceeded the previously existing highest figure at the Perth sales ,(£3200).

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North Island Lambs 4,195;204 (4,114,246) Wethers , , 343,946 (229,702) Ewes ** 833,142 (881,781) Sooth Island Lambs 2i228,S29 (2,203,033) Wethers 0 18,268 (12,632) Ewes M 210,925 (144,535) Dominion totals are:— Lambs (carcases) .. 6,423,733 (6,317.279) Wethers (carcases) i 362,574 (212,334) Ewes (carcases) 1,044,067 (1,028,316) Beef (quarters) 176,103 (65.318)