Japanese Left Deadly Disease

Northern Advocate, 25 June 1946, Page 5

Japanese Left Deadly Disease

CANBERRA. June 23. A special mobile veterinary unit was sent to areas formerly occupied by the Japanese to fight equine anaemia—a deadly and infectious horse disease.

So virulent is the disease that it killed 3000 of 4000 horses the Japanese imported into Rabaul.

All animals and birds which may have been in contact with diseased horses are being killed and veterinary authorities now think it unlikely that the disease can spread to Australia. The Director of Veterinary Hygiene (Mr R. N. Wardle) said that the drastic action of exterminating the horses and all livestock such as birds, poultry and pigs which had been associated with them in the Japanese compounds should have wiped out the disease at its source.

Details of the disease were learned from Japanese veterinary units. There was still some'danger that it could come to Australia, said Mr Wardle. However, the biting insect which transmitted the disease had to bite the infected animal and its victim within a short interval.

It was imperative that no animal that could have been associated with the disease should be allowed into Australia, he said.