Contagious Oattle Diseases.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1667, 5 July 1887, Page 2

Contagious Oattle Diseases.

The following letter from Mr, Thomas Maun has Wen printed in the Canterbury Press :— Sir,— Th" importance of the above question shall be my excuse for trembling you with a few lines, knowing that your columns are at all times opeu to the interest of agriculture. I shall merely endeavor to state a few facts in connection with such terrible diseases, from experience gained in connection with such for upwards of forty years in the Old Country. My dates and figures may not be strictly correct, but, I believe, arc sufficiently so for all useful purposes. Being pretty well .in the midst of the threo ait of ul diseases, foot and mouth, pleuro pneumonia, and rinder« pest, and baying paid considerable at* tenticm to their infections and oontagious natures, I think it possible that my opinion may be of somu little servioe in dealing with the same, and would at all times give my advice and opinion on a subject which I ooußider one of the greatest importance which the colony has for its consideration at this time. First, I quite believe it 18 only a matter of time,, and possibly only n abort time too, when either one or more of such diseases may prevail in this country, thero beiug so many poesiMo and probnble ways of such diseases being introduced by either oattle or sheep. The itnmensoly increased traffic and rapid transit from nearly all parts of the world are favorable to its introduo. tion. No other animal that I know' of would bo more likely to bring the disease tW the ferret. Foot and mouth disease especially, they rarely escaped thu infeotiou on homesteads where the cattle were diseased, and oattlo were almost certain to bo diseased where ferrets and suoh liko animals were prowling about, and it is quite p SBible infected animals might bo imported here; aud onoe in our midst, it is quite impos* siblo to say what feurful destruction and losses might be caused in a very short timo. lam quite satisfied in ray own mind unless we have machinery; to •tut in motion at once at* the first hour of its appearance to stamp it out, all other precautions provo of little value. Indeed, such has proved to be the oaie in all other oouu tries up to the present t time. Of course, when rinderpest pre» ' vailed, as it did iv the Old Country up. wards of a century since, lasted several years, the stock throughout the land succumbed to it, iv sorao countries not a greater number of oattle than parishes remaining, disease did the stamping out of cattle bo effectually that , uoihiug further was necessary. Here it is just Ihe reverse ; at the present, time there are innumerable animals of all deftorip* tious at large, inoluding the latest in> ported pestß. Sea-gulls and all such creatures are liable lo be affected with such diseases, and spread their oontagton. Even herdsmen's clothes, and butter clothos have been known to carry tho disease hundr ds and thousands of miles, I cinuot agree with Mi\ Boag"s opini6n, that inflection and quarantine of stock would afford us anything like the protection ho imagines from the disease being imported and propagated, even if they were carried out on the beat possible principle; its importation, us I have said before, being far more likely to reach us through some other channel which in* spoction und quarantine oonnot avert. Quarantine, to bo of nervioe, must at' least bo of four month a' duration and on some isolated island. It is absurd to think of quarantining imported stock, and keeping them for any length of time in v distriot already overflowing with all kinds oi animals liablo to have the disease themselves, and carry it to others. This once dono the- infection would spread like wildfire, aud no means that could be brought to bear iv a district so favorable for its spreading could possibly prevent its doing so. The situation would bo most alarming. Individual ownot'B of imported stock would doubt* lesß do all they possibly oould to Lave their oattle freo from all such diseases, but if disease woro to break out in stock quarantined, as I believe they now are,*in tho neighborhood of Chris toll nVoh, probably before it wa* observable in tho aninmla themselves it would be spread and spreading far and wide. Even ferrets prowling about where the animals were kept, and making traoks to other homesteads miles away, would carry the gcrtns, and cause frosh centres of obn* tngion, tie they have boon well known to do in the old country; rats aud other things much the Bamo. There.' would probably be in less thau a tortnight as appalling and ruinous a state of things as any country has yet se,en. Tho itu* mediato slaughter and destruction of the carcases of all infeotod animals wouKI be necessary, and everything that had been in contact with ' thorn should bo destroyed to prevent its spreading the infection. Wo must not be blind to the faot that there is no great difficulty in infecting animals by inoculation tnou* sands. of miles away from where affected animals are tn existence. Experiments in the Old Country have proved that oattlo could bo inoculated with rinder> pest poison causing doAth, when tho quantity of matter used was so Bmall as not to be discernable by the naked eye on the point of the lancet used in the experiment of inoculation, so that it would take but a very small quantity of matter, always obtainable from Russian rinderpet. herds. And if some villainous individual interested in tho Bpread of it in the the distriot of Canterbury, were to introduce it, ho might oause great loss and injury in a very few weeks, as the chances are it would spread moat rapidly, exterminating half the stock in the colony. It did so in England, as before mentioned, where, according to an old work upon it, whiob my father had in hia possession, it was stated to havo lasted thirteen years ; although at that time there was not a fiftieth part for it to feed upon and facilitate its spreading of what we have here at tho present time. Hence tho nocesßity of every possible mean? being used from the earliest poasible moment of its outbreak. Instances were somewhat numerous of its being purposely spread on the las" occasion it prevailed in the United Kingdom, causing dreadful destruction and loss. I have, sir, already said more than I in* tended at tho commencement, but I am anxious to be of soino little service to the colony if posßiblo, in a matter whiou I consider to be of such vast importance especially so iv our present oritio*l v situation. — Yours, &c, Thomas Mann. Opunake, Jnoe 13th, '