OVIS CASES IN DOGS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 19

OVIS CASES IN DOGS

Ovis infection in dogs was presenting a problem, not only in the Malvern area but in New Zealand as a whole, said the hydatids inspector (Mr D. Priest) in a report to the Malvern County Council yesterday. He said that ovis could be included in the Hydatid Act this year. This would mean that all meat fed to dogs would have to be cooked. Farmers were now required to cook offal before feeding it to dogs, and Malvern farmers who cooked dog food found that it coped with ovis infection as well as with true and false hydatids. Mr Priest said that in 1741 samples from rural dogs in the county, there were nine cases of true hydatids, 75 of false hydatids and 107 of ovis, an increase of 34 ovis infections on figures for the previous round.

There were 474 owners whose dogs had not been infected in the last two years. These dogs would be dosed once a year. The 118 owners with light infections would have dogs dosed twice a year, and there would be four annual dosings for the 27 cases with heavy infestation.