HYDATID DISEASE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3080, 9 February 1942, Page 6

HYDATID DISEASE

HINTS TO DOG-OWNERS EFFECT ON PEOPLE HUMAN BEINGS SUSCEPTIBLE More than 1000 men, women and children have been treated for hyds.t:d disease in the Dominion dur.ng the past ten years, and there have been 126 deaths, states a pamphlet issued by the Department of Hydatid Research, Dunedin.

Apart from a fatal termination it must be borne in mind that hydatid disease commonly leads to months and years of disability in people who should be at the most useful stage in life. In the majority of cases surgical operation is the only hope •of cure.

Hydatid disease starts with tiny tapeworms getting into the gut of dogs, usually country dogs that eat raw offal. The hydatid tapeworm is only about a quarter of an inch long

but it makes up for its small size by occurring in large numbers.

The microscopic eggs of these worms are passed in countless numbers in the dogs’ droppings and are trampled and scattered as dust, contaminating nearby grass and other vegetation, ' and water supplies. Stock and human beings can thus become affected.

Flies also may spread the infection from the droppings to foodstuffs.

The egg-laden dust also gets into the hairy coats, muzzles and paws of dogs, and on to the woolly fleeces of sheep. Human beings who come into contact with these' animals get their hands contaminated with hydatid eggs and transfer of infection from hand to< mouth can easily occur. This is now regarded as the most likely path of human infection, especially in the case of children.

Sheep and cattle are very commonly affected with hydatid cysts, and millions of sheep livers are condemned every year as a result.

Dog owners are urged to carry out faithfully these two instructions:—

1. Dose all dogs regularly according to instructions.

2. Do not let dogs feed on raw offal.

The tablets supplied for dosing dogs have been given in many thousands of cases, and only in a minute percentage where the dogs seem to have had an abnormal sensitiveness to the drug have there been ill effects. In the vast majority of cases the dogs have been benefited and not harmed. Reports and rumours of ill-effects have been grossly ex-

aggerated

Some people are apt to think that because arecoline has been administered any subsequent illness must be due to the drug, but dogs are liable to many serious illnesses, and out of our 200,000 dogs many thousands must die every year from one cause or another.

(a) All dogs should be registered and regularly dosed.

(b) All useless and unwanted dogs should be destroyed.

(c) Raw offal should not be used as food for dogs.