More Footrot Among Pigs In Northland

Northern Advocate, 13 October 1949, Page 2

More Footrot Among Pigs In Northland

FOOT.ROT trouble has again broken out among Northland , pigs, and the chairman of the Northland District 1 ig Council (Mi F. D. Miller) is dissatisfied with the slow progress oi investigations into the disease which has caused severe losses m Noithland during recent seasons.

At the council’s meeting at Whangarei yesterday, the supervisor (Mr J. Wheeler) reported that further outbreaks had occurred during the past three weeks. Mr Miller later in the meeting told councillors that he had seen a departmental report on the investigations commenced last year into tiie puzzling disease. “Frankly. I am extremely disappointed,” he said. “I thought we might have got further ahead, but there was nothing conclusive in the report and it appears that we are no further ahead than we were 12 months ago.” Mr Miller invited the superintendent of the pig industry (Mr A. Longwill) to address the council _n the subject. LOCAL CONTROL. Mr Longwill said that arising from the trials made at the WullaccvilL Research Station' last year, it was decided that more effective local control over the experiments being carried out in Northland was desirable. To do this, staff would be needed and so far it had not been possible to obtain staff for such a purpose. The annual research division of the Department of Agriculture would be discussing the whole question again this week, he said. In his opinion it was essential that the trials commenced last year should be carried through thoroughly to their conclusion. The department’s attitude was not just to 11 nd a cure but to find the causes contributing to the disease, and the development of husbandry methods to avoid it. It was a problem requiring patience and it could not be solved in five minutes, Mr Longwill added.

Crooked Jaw

The incidence of crooked jaw in Berkshire pigs in Northland was the subject of a report by the Animal Research Division of the Department of Agriculture, tabled at yesterday’s meeting of ■ the Northland District Pig Council at Whangarei. It was found crooked jaw was due to inheritance, not always apparent, through the parents and that no important monetary, loss was concerned. The report stated that the 12 studs in the area were affected with this abnormality which had caused considerable concern among breeders. total of 232 pigs from 31 sows and 15 boars was involved. A total of 117 young pigs had normal jaws and 115 showed the crooked condition. Twenty-six of the breeding sows were normal and five were crooked. All the boars were normal. LEAD NORMAL LIVES The five sows with crooked jaws produced 50 pigs, of which half had crooked jaws. An examination of the pedigree up to the grandparent stage showed that 33 studs in New Zealand were represented. If the condition was an inherited one, it must be present in the Taranaki, Waikato and Bay of Plenty Districts, the report staled. Although the condition was classed as a defect for stud book purposes, none of the stock examined was apparently handicapped in grazing, fattening, or reproduction, so that the economic importance of the trouble appeared negligible. A survey showed an outstanding fact about inheritance. The incidence of crooked jaw was almost the same in matings where one parent was affected as in matings where neither parent was affected. This indicated that it would be very difficult to breed out the defect. Major H. S. N. Robinson, who tor 25 years has been general secretary and treasurer of the Diocese of Melanesia, and has served four bishops, has resigned from the general secretaryship of the Melanesian Mission. His successor will be Mr 11. W. Bullen, who has had 10 years’ administrative experience in the Solomon Islands. Major Robinson will relinquish his duties at the end of next month and will return to Sydney to live. Born in Scotland, Major Robinson came as a youth to New Zealand and served in the Boer War and First World War.