DISEASE IN STOCK

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 146, 23 June 1938, Page 23

DISEASE IN STOCK

* ■ ! STUDIES BY EXPERTS AN EXTENSIVE PROGRAMME The most comprehensive single Investigation ever carried out in New Zealand into livestock diseases has been planned by the Department of i Agriculture in connection with the . recent outbreak of facial eczema, . states the Rotorua correspondent in today's "New Zealand Herald." A ' statement to this effect was made by • the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. W. Lee Martin) at the opening of the Rotorua Show. Most of the work, the Minister said, would be carried out at the Ruakura Experimental Farm, near Hamilton, but research would also be undertaken at the Wallaceville Veterinary Laboratory and by the grasslands division of the Plant Research Bureau. The officer in charge of the investigation, the estimated cost of which was about £10,000, was Mr. J. F. Filmer, veterinary research officer of the Department of Agriculture. •The research work, the Minister continued, might be broadly classified under three headings:—(l) An extensive survey by veterinary and field officers of the Department in the affected areas of the South Auckland district to obtain all possible information in connection with the outbreak; (2) intensive field and laboratory work at Ruakura by veterinarians and chemists, with supplementry work at Palmerston North; (3) pathological work at the Wallaceville Veterinary Laboratory. The programme had already been commenced. The work on the chemical side embraced three fields—animal tissues, pastures, and soils. There would also be a number .of field experiments. In the first place an endeavour would be made to reproduce the disease, and, [secondly, studies would be made on the prevention side. In addition, arrangements had been made to conduct comprehensive experiments on a farm where outbreaks of facial

cf eczema had been reported for several mt years past. he . FACIAL ECZEMA si- vNO NEW CASES at x _^ se- ■t ' ■ er (Br Telegraph—Preas Association.) in AUCKLAND, This Day. ch a definite statement was made by e- responsible offlc'ers-of' the Department ■>P of Agriculture today that no fresh P - cases of facial eczema in sheep or cattle were--being reported .but that "j* deaths were still occurring of animals ld that had been .badly affected by the er recent outbreak. Stock which had t0 taken the disease badly were still be)n ing sent to Westfield for boiling down er to save them from ' dying on the '°T farms. • '5 "Cattle and sheep affected by the ig disease show slow improvement, and J many are still in the convalescent stage ,pn farms,"'said'one officer. "It |, will be a long time before the aftermath is entirely cleaned up, but therie is consolation in thq fact, that the; dis- j 1S ease is not contagious : and • no newi I. cases are occurring." n- . ~