FACIAL ECZEMA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 168, 17 June 1936, Page 15

FACIAL ECZEMA.

DISEASE IN SHEEP. ADVICE FOR FARMERS. “Facial eczema” in sheep, a severe epidemic of which occurred on the East Coast of the Is or til Island during the autumn before last, was the subject of an address to the recent sheep breeders’ meeting at Massey College by Mr AY. M. Webster. He reviewed at length the predisposing influence of a protracted and severe drought, which interfered with and slowed up the action ol the liver which, when suddenly put under the strain of coping with a largo growth of young grass, rich in elilorophyl—which contains the potent factor causing sensitiveness to sunburn—completely broke down and was unable to tree the sheep’s system of the excess per medium ot the bile discharged into the digestive organs. Mr AA’ebster exhibited affected livers of sheep which had gonu some distance in reconstructing the destroyed tissues, and recommended treatment calculated to mitigate, if not to prevent the trouble. The must valuable suggestion was to dose the animals in the early stages with from 2oz to 3oz of Epsom salts, thereby stimulating the sluggish liver to throw off the bile with its excess of poisonous contents. Further preventive treatment, said Mr Webster, was to place the threatened flock on the poorest and slowest growing pastures to give the animal’s organs time to adjust themselves to the altered feed conditions.

The actual sunburn of exposed surfaces, while being really the least serious, though most unsightly effect of the trouble, could be prevented by applying a mixture of lamp-black and grease to the sheep’s face, or by giving it protection from the sun in plantations, sheds, or even sheep yards when they could be covered by scrim, which was sufficient protection. »