APPEAL MADE FOR HONEST DIPPING

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29916, 1 September 1962, Page 7

APPEAL MADE FOR HONEST DIPPING

'TWO letters have come to A hand this week from readers interested in the current problem of lice-infested sheep and the efficiency of dipping materials and dipping procedures now being used on farms.

One correspondent makes an appeal for what he calls "honest dipping.” “The sheepfarmer has got himself into this itch mite lice predicament . . he writes. "Instead of lice fines being cancelled they should be doubled. “When we all used swim dips and arsenical powder there was none of this trouble Then we had quick acting arsenical dips—still O.xv—arsenic with B.H.C or dieldrin 0.K., but arsenic yes “During the slump a neighbour and I bought a drum of arsenic and made our dip according to a recipe of Mr James Begg, of Otago We dipped 6000 for £3 10s and had them clean.

"It may be possible that one spraying or dusting can keep sheep right if they are completely isolated with a securely fenced no-man's land all round them, but conditions are not like that in real life In fact, to check our own dipping we mark all sheep that go through the bath and all late-comers—-stragglers—are put through a smaller plunge where they are held for the requisite time.

“I would look on showers also with the gravest suspicion. as I have seen fairly

woolly sheep come out with dry bits.

“I do not think that putting sheep through a swim dip has killed anyone yet.” Another correspondent, writing under the name of “Shear Them," contends that the suggested jetting of woolly sheep for lice control is a typical example of the New Zealand farmer being used as a guinea pig by local and overseas firms. This correspondent seems to have overlooked the fact that jetting—a method which has been suggested by the Department of Agriculture—is one of the means that may be used by farmers to attempt to control lice in woolly ewes and lambs at this stage of the year in an emergency situation. Very effective materials in the form f dieldrin and aldrin had to be withdrawn from use as dipping materials because of their possible danger to New Zealand’s meat export trade by leaving residues in meat New organophosphate materials have had to be introduced and for a reason or reasons that have not yet been officially disclosed there has been an exceptional upsurge in lice in flocks all over the country this year It has therefore been necessary for the authorities and those concerned with the production of dipping materials to seek means of dealing with lice on sheep at a time of the year when plunge or swim dipping may not be possible