N.Z.. free of second strain of chlamydia

Press, 19 December 1986, Page 8

N.Z.. free of second strain of chlamydia

PA Wellington A strain of chlamydia which is a main cause of chest disease in aviary birds can sometimes also infect their handlers, health officials have warned. But New Zealand is free of a second strain of the disease which overseas causes miscarriages in women handling sheep at lambing time. A third strain has afflicted the Australian koala bear population, and the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture is thinking of testing the disease with a view to

using it to control opossums. A veterinary staff officer in the Ministry’s Animal Health Division, Dr Stuart Mac Diarmid, said all the diseases were caused by the same organism — Chlamydia psittaci — but it existed in distinct strains. Overseas it was the main cause of abortion in sheep and the British “Sunday Telegraph” newspaper recently reported a warning to pregnant women from health and agriculture authorities to stay away from sheep during the lambing

season because of the risk of catching the bacteria.

'Three farmers’ wives are known to have lost their babies this year and doctors suspect that other miscarriages have been caused by the disease,” the newspaper reported. Mr Mac Diarmid said the disease had never been found in New Zealand sheep, and quarantine restrictions would keep things that way. But the same bacteria were present in some New Zealand birds, particularly parrots, and caused the respiratory disease, psittacosis.