ECZEMA IN STOCK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23202, 23 November 1938, Page 18

ECZEMA IN STOCK

A POSSIBLE CURE GISBORNE COUPLE'S CLAIM SHEEP RESTORED TO HEALTH! [l. : TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] GISBORNE, Tuesday An exhibit of 50 wether carcases at the Kaiti freezing works to-day attracted a great deal of attention among sheep farmers and officers of the Department of Agriculture. They wero part of a line of 140 treated last May by a process evolved by Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Moloney, of Puha, who claim that it is an effective cure for the disease commonly known as facial eczema. Mr. and Mrs. Moloney disagree with the name facial eczema and claim that it is an illness more like influenza of the type developed in human beings. They term it facet. They claim that the disease is started in the inner linings of the throat and works downward, at the same time affecting the head as influenza does in human beings. Dying Stock Selected During last autumn, when the disease was widespread in the Gisborne district, particularly ~on flat lands, Mr. and Mrs. Moloney selected 140 wethers which they maintained wore all dying cases, and they were treated according to their process. Of that number 10 died and the remainder thrived -well. The 10 which died were regarded as being too far advanced in the disease. 11l the cure a wash is used for the face and the throat is rubbed with puro turpentine, while a powder is used to counteract the germ. The investigators worked on the theory that the poison from the throat percolated throughout the body of the sheep and came out at any break in'the skin in a yellow fluid. The nose of sheep was blocked and the throat affection prevented the sheep from swallowing. In an attempt to clear its nose the sheep rubbed its head against any object, causing a break in the skin and a flow of the yellow fluid. Inspection of Carcases The 130 wethers treated were grazed on Mrs. T. Quirk's farm at Waiohika since May, and the first consignment of 50 we've slaughtered at Kaiti to-day. Before slaughtering they were inspected by Mr. E. .J. Simnnns, veterinary supervisor at Gisborne for the Department of Agriculture, and Mr. F. R. Bould, inspector of stock, who was present at the demonstration at Waiohika at the time of the treatment. Signs of the sheep having been affected by eczema were seen by the condition of the noses and eyes. When the beasts wero slaughtered Government officers found that the livers in some cases were diseased, ill some onlv lightlv and in others considerably. New growth of liver was noted in badlv affected cases, but it was stated that this was not unusual in sheep with diseased livers. The 50 wether carcases bore the nppearahco of being in every way normal. All but one were graded first grade, the one exception being put into the second grade because of its colour, Ihe weights were about average for wethers at this time of the year. The lightest was 481b. and the heaviest 711b., lhe average being 60ilb.