Over 1000 Pigs Dead Or Awaiting Destruction

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 May 1933, Page 8

Over 1000 Pigs Dead Or Awaiting Destruction

SWINE FEVER OUTBREAK IN JOHNSONVILLE DISTRICT

WELLINGTON, Last Night,

The number of pigs in the Johnsonville district destroyed or awaiting destruction through swine fever, or contact with affected animals, totals 1147. Six hundred have already been destroyed. The department has issued an appeal to all farmers immediately to notify the appearance of any disease in stock.

The discovery of two dead pigs on the foreshore at Point Howard this morning gives ground for fear that the carcases were brought down the Hutt river, indicating a possibility of part of the Hutt Valley being infected. In a complete investigation of the valley and Karaka, however, the department discovered no sign of the disease. No trouble was experienced with the 45 relief workers engaged in digging the trenches for the burial of the pigs. The Department of Agriculture’s veterinary laboratory at Wallaceville has been very active during the past two weeks. Before' the outbreak of fever was definitely proclaimed, a number of pigs had been inoculated with the blood of suspected animals and typical swine fever set up in an experimental animal.

Blood samples are taken from pigs on any farm where the slightest suspicion of the disease occurs and these are used to inoculate experimental animals, thus revealing if fever is present.