Tick Fever.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 82, 9 January 1896, Page 4

Tick Fever.

— '. 9 SPREAD OB 1 A QTJBBNSLANI) CATTLE DISEASE. A minute with , regard to redwater oi tick fever amongst cattle in Queensland ■ has been submitted by the Chief Inspeotor of Stook, Mr Alex. Bruce, to the Minister i for Mines and Agriculture, who has :. directed that a communication be adi dreßsed to the Queensland Government on the subjeot. The minute says : ' This : disease, has previously been known as redwater in cattle, bat more recently it 1 has been termed tick fever, and it has oi late assumed a very serious aspect in the northern portion of Queensland. The i disease has been known In exist in the Northern Territory of South Australia for some yearc, -but it is only comparetively recently that it has appeared in Queensland, where it would now seem to be .making rapid progress, and in some ■ cases occasioning heavy losses I.1 '. It was fully reported on by Mr O. J. Pound, F.R.M.S., the scientist attached to the Queensland Stock Institute, but at that time the rapidity and the extent of the spread of the disease was not anticipated, - Some months ago the disease appeared among cattle at. Torrens Greek Boiling Down Works, the cattle having come along a tick-infected route. These cattle were all slaughtered, and recently the disease re-appeared among another lot of cattle, which were taken to the " same place. But a more serious case has occurred, which shows that the disease is spreading te the south. A large sugar estate on the Bardekio Delta put on a mob of store cattle from a run-in the infected area in October last year, and since then another mob from a run not in the infected area. The first mob were apparently free from disease when put on, but the disease has since broken out on the estate, brought, no doubt, by the first mob. Reports are current also that very serious losses have been sustained where the outbreak occurred among travelling cattle. 'The disease after a time dies out, and the cattle left are immune to a second attack, but all fresh cattle placed on the same pasture are liable to the disease, and, worst of all, these same cattle when they leave the run may, althongh quite recovered, carry the disease with them, and set up fresh centre?. It is the" opinion of some of the experts that the disease is a malarial type of fever, and if so it is not thought that it will reach to the more temperate colonies of New South Wales and Victoria, or even the southern portions of Queensland. In the Northern Territory the disease soon spends itself ont, but when fresh cattle arrive on the ground it starts among them. The ticks were brought from the Gulf to Thursday Island, and now the disease is very prevalent and deadly there. Everything points to the faot that the disease is . the result of the tick, for the attempt to communicate the disease by inoculation failed, whereas young ticks placed on animals set up the disease' ; although in many instances the blood coloring did'notescape, and the urine was of the natural color. As the disease travels northward towards Cape York in the tropics,' all cattle infested with tick show symptoms cf it, many but slightly," but ■ the deaths are numerous. As it proceeds .southwards again the deaths are very few if the cattle are left undisturbed, and many that are tick infested do net show any symptoms of the disease. . That is hopeful as regards South' Queensland and New South Wales. As the spread of the disease is wholly due to the tick, the only apparently practical proposals which have hitherto been made for checking it are to quarantine the known infected country, to dip all cattle coming from the suspected or doubtful districts, or keep .up a close inspection of travelling cattle. If the tioks on the cattle are destroyed a great deal will be gained, for when they are satiated and fall oft they each deposit from 1700 to 2000 eggs on the soil, which in a few weeks develop themselves into tioks, and attach themselves to the cattle. The dipping would not only .destroy the ticks on infested cattle, but would also enable clean cattle to travel along the routes without runningthe. risk of being infested, and, of course would not, as they are now doing, spread the disense. Mr Pound does not think dipping practicable, as the cattle are so wild ; but with proper arrangements this would be neither a difficult nor expensive undertaking. He recommends burning the grass, which, when practicable, would no doubt be an excellent mode of destroying large numbers of ticks;, but unless those on the cattle are also killed the disease would soon start again and spread. In view of the risk to the cattle of this colony, should the disease continue to spread, I think the Queensland Government should be asked what steps are being taken to stay its spread, more especially on the lines indicated above, .and whether a close inspection of all cattle travelling southward from the northern part of that colony is systematically made by duly qualified inspectors ; for unless satisfactory assurance is received on these points it will be necessary to place eff-ct,ive restrictions upon - the introduction of cattle from that colony into this, lest this disease, which is in many cases causing very heavy losses, should be introduced among our cattle. It is now, I believe, as far south in Queensland as latitude 21 deg.— « Sydney Stock and Station Journal.'