NEW BENEFACTOR

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2667, 8 September 1937, Page 5

NEW BENEFACTOR

USE FOR THE HEDGEHOG. The hedgehog, among the very oldest of ancient Britons, has suddenly been made to appear in a new light. He comes startlingly into the latest report of the Government Commission of scientists who year after year are seeking the cause and cure of the terrible foot and mouth disease which, deadly as a fire, destroys cattle,. sheep, pigs, horses, dogs, cats, and sometimes attacks even human beings. Old as the animals themselves, it may be, the disease has hitherto proved incurable; the only course open when its presence is proved, is to slaughter the animals affected, the Government bearing some proportion of the loss, the unfortunate owner the greater share. It has always been a problem as to which animals may be infected and which are immune. The latest discovery is that hedgehogs are as subject to it as any of the recognised victims. That is serious, for hedgehogs range practically throughout the land, and their presence is often unsuspected owing to their coming out only at night. As they travel far and carry the infection, and one kind of animal can give the disease to another, the situation suddenly presents perils never previously imagined. But out of evil good is to come, we hope. The commission has found that the disease may be set up by several kinds of virus. Each virus may be reduced to a vaccine which will either cure or confer immunity against the form of disease for which that particular germ is responsible. But how to get the vaccine? The new actor in the tragedy, the hedgehog, seems to afford the solution. As he catches all varieties of the malady, so all forms of the virus can be obtained from him. He can be infected with mild solutions of the virus for experiment, and from him can be obtained material enough to make fresh supplies of new vaccine. Our fathers believed that.hedgehogs were public benefactors on the ground that they destroyed snakes. Foot and mouth disease slays. in thousands where snakes slay in units. It would be a rare triumph for one of the veterans of our wild kingdom should the creepy hedgehog help us to cure one of the oldest scourges of animal life.