Ergot And Eczema

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 113, 6 February 1941, Page 9

Ergot And Eczema

Sir, —In your sub-leader under the above heading you state that “when facial eczema (really congestion of the liver, of which facial eczema is one of the outward signs) broke out badly in the flocks and herds four or five years ago many farmers and others blamed ergot as found on variout grasses and plants, for the whole trouble.” In an English agricultural paper, dated November 1, I find under the heading of “Ergot on Rye.” the following: “Though perhaps orthodox science has not admitted that facial eczema —that curse of the New Zealand sheep industry —is connected with ergot, a growing number of farmers there believe firmly in this connexion, and act accordingly.” There is a section of the farming community in this country who attribute all sorts of troubles met with by stock-owners to ergot grown on rye grasses. I know of one man who contends that it is not safe for human beings either to drink the milk or eat the Putter produced from animals fed on it, and declares that he never touches either of them. To contend that ergot causes facial eczema seems to me illogical. It can be found on rye and other grasses, including paspalum, every year. We are often free of facial eczema for several years on end. If ergot is the cause of it, how is it that it does not appear every year. Moreover, there is fair evidence that stock fed on paspalum continuously, under the same conditions which produce eczema when fed on other grasses, do not do so on that grass.—l am, etc., F. J. ELLIS. Bulls, February 4.

Answer to Correspondent.—J.H.D.: The protest has been sufficiently emphasized.