TREATING FOOT-ROT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 124, 11 May 1935, Page 9

TREATING FOOT-ROT

Result of Damp Conditions

DRESSINGS AND BATHING Wet conditions underfoot, as a result of rains bringing away a lush growth of grass, have made conditions very suited to the occurrence of footscald in Hawke's Bay sheep flocks, and farmers who wish to keep their sheep free from foot-rot are systematically taking precautions, running their animals through the foot-rot trough and dressing affected feet where the condition is at all advanced.

Although of regular occurrence in certain parts of the province, it is only in the wet seasons that foot-rot is at all general and farmers who do not usually experience trouble from this source are sometimes inclined to neglect treatment until the rot is well advanced.' In consequence a longer time is required to get the feet healthy once again. With this condition time is the essence of the contract, and the farmer who takes suitable precautionary measures will find that he will save himself much work at a later stage of the season. THE USE OF FOOT-ROT TROUGH. With foot scald a run through the foot-rot trough every few weeks will keep the condition in check and effect a cure. Two alternative methods are to uso dry powdered blue-stone, rubbing this between the claws of the hoof or else dress the feet with bluestone and vinegar. With foot-rot the affected feet should be trimmed and the diseased portion and the old shell removed. The feet should then be dressed.

As to the actual dressing of the feet a stronger solution of bluestone than is used for the foot-rot trough is quite effective, as is formalin, both of which can be painted on to the feet, Butter of antimony is favoured by some farmers, but experience has shown that this substance is more dangerous than the others, and, while quite a satisfactory drossing, it is inclined to burn.

A point worth mentioning is that, after running sheep through the trough

they should be left in the shed for a time, to enable the foot-rot solution to bo worked into tho foot. Otherwise, when sheep are turned straight-way on to pasture, much of the benefit is lost, as the dressing material is wiped oil on the grass. Bluestone is very good in the foot-rot trough, and there are several excellent proprietary remedies which have given very satisfactory results in the Dominion, which can also be used. Some very interesting experiments in connection with foot-rot have been carried out in the United States recently, and a bulletin issued by the Montana Experiment Station contains details of the findings of investigations made into this trouble. EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT. The major result of these investigations was to show that environment is only a “predisposing factor’’ in the development of foot-rot. The damp earth and lush feed tended to make the feet of the sheep soft and susceptible to infection, and soil getting between the claws of the hoof created an irritated area, which opened the way to infection, but for foot-rot to occur there must be in the soil an “infective agent.’’ A previous study conducted by Mohler and Washbun of tho U.S. Department of Agriculture- resulted in the conclusion that the bacterial cause of foot-rot was Actinomyces neerophorus. The deduction made from the recent Montana work is that while this is the primary cause of the disease, there is also another factor involved which they have been unable to discover. This conclusion was based on tho facts that A. neerophorus is constantly found in foot-rot lesions; that pure cultures of it were obtained from lesions on the foot of a lamb that developed the di-, sense after being placed in a wet pasture with sheep affected with foot-rot; but on the other hand the disease could not be reproduced in sheep either by direct inoculations or by exposure to soil that had been repeatedly inoculated with cultures of A. neerophorus. PERSISTENCE OF INFECTION. As regards the determination of the persistence of infection in the soil of pasture and yards the deductions made were as follow:— Healthy sheep regularly develop footrot when placed in a heavily infected wet pasture, after an incubation period of 10 to 14 days. Open corrals on well-drained land lose their infectivity within 15 days, if the soil is allowed to dry, and within 30 days where the soil is continuously wet. , In a heavily infected sub-irrigated ’wamfi pasture, the infection may persist from one season to the next.