DISTEMPER IN DOGS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21469, 18 April 1933, Page 13

DISTEMPER IN DOGS

PREVENTION AND CUBE

SUCCESS OF RESEARCH

"POSITION NOW CHANGED"

Researches promoted by tho Field Distemper Council in Britain into tho cause, prevention and treatment of canine distemper have been successfully concluded, according to a quotation from tho final report of tho council contained in a circular issued by the New Zealand Department of Agriculture. After recalling tho fact that, 10 years ago, distemper was regarded as of almost inevitable occurrence in every dog's life, the report states:— "The position has now been completely changed as the result of the work done by Dr. P. P. Laidlaw and Mr. G. W. Dunkin, with tho resources placed at their disposal from tho field distemper fund and by the Medical Research Council. The causo of the disease has been clearly defined and its nature is better understood. Two methods of protective inoculation havo been devised and trial on a large scale has shown them to bo successful. A useful method of curative treatment has also been introduced. The subsequent work of commercial laboratories in Great Britain and the United States has now made these results available to tho veterinary profession, and so to the public for the benefit of dogs of every kind." Proof was obtained that primary distemper is due to an ultra-niiscroscopic filter-passing virus. This knowledge provided a rational basis for new means of prevention and treatment. Eventually it was found possible to produce a virus containing the living organisms of tho disease and capable of severely infecting a susceptible animal; vaccine containing the killed organisms of the disease, and anti-serum from the blood of an animal that had itself been made strongly immune by repeated administrations of virus. It/ was found that a healthy dog could bo given lasting protection against distemper infection by the inoculation of vaccino, followed by inoculation of virus a fortnight later, and that an animal could also bo immunised by the simultaneous inoculation of anti-serum and virus. It was found that the anti-serum, used alone, was of value in lessening the severity of an attack of distemper when given early enough in the disease. "Theso achievements may soon have a wider interest," states the report. "True distemper has recently been found to occur among fur-bearing animals related to tho dog (silver fox) or ferret (fitch, mink, fisher), and preliminary experiments already show that the methods now available wi.ll havo immediate value where these animals are farmed. The work primarly undertaken for the pro'tection of dogs seems likely, therefore, to save an important industry from losses which have hitherto been often disastrous. Apart from all else, tho knowledge gained of this virus disease and of the lf.eans of combating it cannot fail to have a farreaching and helpful influence upon the progress of research into virus diseases generally, whether of animals or of man himself; there is evidence of this already." The departmental circular states: — "The position as regards distemper treatment in New Zealand is that, while serum can be obtained by qualified veterinarians, tho importation of virus for vaccine and virus treatment is still impossible owing to the fact that tho virus cannot be depended upon to arrive alive. Until the manufacturers can feel satisfied as to its safe carriage to New Zealand, dog owners will have to rely on the serum inoculation."