M.P. questions Ruakura study

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 5

M.P. questions Ruakura study

The member of Parliament for Coromandel (Mr L. C. Schultz) has questioned whether taxpayers were getting value for money from the Ruakura research centre work on the use of zinc in facial eczema.

He said that professional rivalry might be preventing scientists from recognising the work of Mrs Gladys Reid, of Te Aroha, who has been advocating zinc as a general animal health remedy for 18 years. Mr Schultz said he was surprised about a statement from Ruakura last month which claimed credit for the discovery that high doses of zinc protected animals from facial eczema.

“There appears to be a credibility gap somewhere, because they had already, in March 1976, condemned the use of zinc,” he said. When Mrs Reid made the discovery, it was “one in the , eye” for the scientists, said Mr Schultz. He had visited Ruakura to i examine the zinc research'

with other members of the caucus agriculture committee and had found the scientists on the defensive, and resentful of the team’s questioning on the issue. Mrs Reid said Ruakura’s claims told have discovered the place of zinc were “really cute.” She was resigned to what came out of Ruakura, and was hoping for someone else to take up the cudgels on her behalf, she said.

A Ruakura zinc team member, Dr Doug Wright, said he thought Mr Schultz’s claims were “just politicking.” Mrs Reid’s contribution had been acknowledged in public at the 1975 Ruakura farmers conference, but the centre had not yet recommended zinc for use in facial eczema because reliable methods, practical for farmers, had yet to be developed, said Dr Wright. Several breakthroughs had I been made during research, and the use of zinc was only 'one of them, he said.