BRUCELLOSIS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 10

BRUCELLOSIS

M ORE attention had been paid to brucellosis in order to keep Christchurch milk supply herds free from the disease and also to try new herd screening tests and also tests which could be applied to the live animal in the yard or at the meat works, Dr. C. S. M. Hopkirk, of Lincoln College, told the annual general meeting of the Town [Milk Producers’ Federation last week.

During the year, he said. 13 herds had given a positive reaction, had individual cows tested and been cleared up by the slaughter of 37 cows. Two of these herds had been badly infected because of the failure to slaughter affected cows found in a previous test.

The reason odd cases occurred in a herd seemed to be by purchase of infected animals, but in one case an old cow, negative for five years but a survivor in a self-con-tained herd cleared up five years ago. had broken down. The picture suggested the need for constant ring tests and the quick evacuation of

positive cows from a herd. Buyers of new cows or heifers for herd replacement should pay more attention to testing animals entering the shed.

A screening test had been tried for cream received in a butter factory. Of 47 samples of cream received five gave a positive test and examination of individual cows found the test to be correct. Thirty herds gave a negative test and in cows also individually tested the great majority were negative. However in a verylarge herd some weak positives had been found, but as cows were starting to dry off this might not have been really significant.

Because of the need for a quick test for dry cows and beef herds, a whole blood test was being developed. This was working fairly well in trials in a local slaughterhouse where the blood test was being checked with serum testing and confirmed by the regular tube test at the college. It was hoped that the test could shortly be applied in the field. It would save a great deal of handling of stock.