THREE-DAY SICKNESS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 235, 3 September 1937, Page 5

THREE-DAY SICKNESS.

INTRODUCTION TO AUSTRALIA.

Canterbury visitors to Sydney for the Sheep Show and sales heard a good • deal about a new cattle disease, known as the “three-day sickness” (says the Press). Its effect was to sicken the cow for tho brief period mentioned, when it mado a complete bodily recovery, but tho trouble was that in-milk cows dried off to a disconcerting extent. The explanation given of the cause of the disease was that it was brought over to Darwin in the aeroplanes from the East. A recent paragraph in an Australian paper has tho following on the subject;— The onus of proof that three-day sickness, a virus disease among cattlo, was not introduced by aeroplanes lay with the quarantine service of the Federal Government, and the Queensland Minister for Agriculture and Stock. A process of elimination indicated two possible sources of introduction —poaching sampans and aeroplanes. Aeroplanes were the more likely cause. It. was true, an authority states, that throe-day sickness had proved fairly benign, but this was no excuse for inaction. The introduction of three-day sickness was an indication of Australia’s vulnerability. It was to be hoped that tho Commonwealth authorities would take a most serious view of the possibilities of tho introduction of other much moro malignant diseases, such as foot-and-mouth diseaso and rinderpest.