DREADER RINDERPEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18567, 27 November 1923, Page 7

DREADER RINDERPEST.

W. AUSTRALIAN OUTBREAK. EXPERTS' AID SUMMONED. Australian and N.Z- Cable Association. (Reed. 9.5 p.m.) MELBOURNE. Nov. 26. The chief veterinary officer of Victoria, Dr. Robertson, and Professor Woodruff, of Melbourne University, have left for Perth to assist in the campaign against the outbreak of rinderpest. „ The chief inspector of stock in Western Australia says that the outbreak is very serious. It started with a bull and a couple of heifers which were confined in a yard at a dairy for a considerable time. A diagnosis revealed features of rinderpest, but doubt was caused for a tima by the* absence of ulceration of the . stomach, which is characteristic of the disease. The Queensland Government has issued an order prohibiting the introduction of stock, carcases, fodder, or any fittings into Quensland from Western Australia, in view of the rinderpest outbreak.

Rinderpest is onei of the most infectious and fatal diseases of oxen, sheep, goats, etc., and from the earliest times it has excited terror and dismay. It is an Asiatic malady, and has prevailed extensively in South Russia, Central Asia, China, IndoChina, Burma, India, Persia, Ceylon and the Malay Archipelago: It was carried into South Africa toward the end of the last century, and has appeared in Egypt, Abyssinia, Japan and tr.e Philippines. Britain has been visited by the disease several times. In 1866 and 1872, it was imported direct from Russia and in 1877 from Germany. ,