WORM NODULES IN BEEF.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1095, 6 April 1911, Page 5

WORM NODULES IN BEEF.

AN AUSTRALIAN TROUBLE. By Telezraph-Prcss Association-Oopyrieht Melbourne, April 5. Experts aro to be engaged to investigate the prevalence, of worm nodules in Australian beef.

At the Science Congress at Sydney in January a paper was read before the Biological Section by Professor J. A. Gilruth and. Dr. Georgina Sweet, from the Melbourne University Veterinary Research Institute', entitled "A Contribution to Our Knowledge of Onchocerca gib<=oni Clcland and Johnston, 1910." The authors pointed out that "worm-nodules" had been known in Queensland cattle for over 10 years, though it was only during the last two years that they had assumed any commercial importance. - This now made the study of the causative agent imperative, and had compelled tho attention of several workers, including Messrs. GJoland and Johnston, in Sydney, as well as the present authors in Melbourne. These nodules were very frequent in the cattle of northern districts of Australia, their frequency diminishing rapidly as one passed south, till in Victoria one rarely if ever found them in locally-bred cattle. They were as frequently found, and in much the same numbers, in young (2 to i years old) bullocks as in old animals, being confined to two regions of the body, viz., tho brisket, either in the superficial subcutaneous tissuo or intermuscularly; or in fewer numbers on tho external surface of the hind limb. These nodules, varying in size from a split pea to a walnut, were subspherical or flattened, and consisted of a more or less thick fibrous wall, enclosing a long (up to 140.3 cm.) threadlike worm, most intricately coiled and knotted, this worm being the cause of the formation of the nodule. The worms do not cause any harm to man, but their presence greatly depreci-1 ntes tho commercial value of tho carcass.