ERADICATING HYDATIDS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28702, 27 September 1958, Page 9

ERADICATING HYDATIDS

It is becoming obvious that if the campaign against hydatids is to become fully effective there must be facilities for testing the purges of dogs so that progress can be determined. The chairman of the Amuri Anti-Hydatids Committee (Mr R. E. Hiatt) made this point this week in discussing the campaign against hydatids in the area from the Hurunui to the Conway and on the plains to the high country. This area embraces 210 farms, five rabbit boards, and the Forest Service.

The organisation has now been operative for a year. The area over which it is working has been subdivided into 47 zones with from 20 to 50 dogs, and in each zone a farmer is responsible for seeing that all dogs are dpsed once every three months. This three-monthly contact with all dog owners is regarded as being particularly valuable, in that it gives another opportunity of making farmers conscious of the need for prudent offal disposal. There is evidence that farmers are becoming increasingly aware of this and are taking steps to conform with sound practices. But Mr Hiatt feels that the stage has been reached where it is necessary to determine just how successful the scheme has been in cleaning dogs, and this cannot be done without facilities for

purge testing. When it was pos sible to do this, Mr Hiatt said, it would be possible to identify those areas where dogs were still infected and to concentrate on them.