DISEASES OF DAIRY CATTLE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1291, 26 November 1896, Page 5

DISEASES OF DAIRY CATTLE.

A paper on this important subject was read by Mr W. W. Kendall, JVTR C.V.S., at the annual conference of the Victorian Butter and Cheese Factory Managers' Association held recently in Melbourne. Remarking on the fact that in the early days of the colony stock was singularly free from diseases, while this was unfortunately no longer the case, Mr Kendall gave his I reasons for the change. Sound cattle were brought here at the outset, and, food being abundant and the natural conditions free and wholesome, stock remained healthy. In-and-in breeding through the scarcity of new blood—was the first step in deterioration. Then over-stocking led to a diminution of tone and vigour, and this was aided later by the importation ot inferior animals. Tuberculosis had been brought in with the living cattle through bad quarantine arrangements, and there had been a good deal of injudicious breeding from young stock and faulty-herd-management in the use of pedigreed sires constitutionally unsound. As the valuable natural pasture grasses were destroyed by cultivation baneful weedt, took their place, and the exhaustion of the nutritive elements in the soil through want of manuring all helped the decline. Heavy milkers, though otherwise sound, were peculiarly susceptible to contagion if it were about, and the indiscriminate use of feeding troughs meant that if one cow in a i herd were diseased all were liable to be affected. The effort to turn a cow into a milking-machine, being necessarily a variation of natural conditions, weakened the constitution of the cow for the time. They only needed to see the stunted, ill-bred, half-starved cows all over the country to realise how dairy stock had degenerated, though he was bound to say that a great improvement had taken place in late year.q, and if this were intelligently persevered with a much better state of things would soon arrive. Tuberculosis.'was the most serious of all diseases in dairy cattle, and the numbers affected by it were being increased every year. It was so widely spread that the addition of a few more did not matter. Yet dairy herds could be effectively tested for it; and his own experience, based on repeated tests, was that its presence could be told with absolute certainty by the use of tuberculine. Wherever he had use it, and the symptoms showed the presence of the disease, a subsequent post-mortem had shown the test infallible. The value of veterinary inspection in such matters had been shown by the promptitude with which the late Mr Graham Mitchell identi6ed the foot and mouth disease, and had it stamped out, while Mr Wragge had also diagnosed pleura in its early stages, though through delay and neglect it was allowed to spread. He personally claimed to have first identified the disease known as "lumpy jaw," which had previously been called " dry pleura." The parks and open lands about Melbourne were perfect hotbeds for the spread of the contagion. He was recently asked to inspect three cows owned by a woman in one of the suburbs, and found one so badly diseased that he ordered its destruction, and told how the others should be treated. Yet next day, on passing the cattle market, he found the owner driving the three cows into the yards for sale.—(Mr Divid Wilson : "That's quite true.") Where tuberculosis was suspected in h herd, every cow should be subjected to the tuberculine test ; those badly diseased should bedestroyrd and the carcase burned ; while cows lightly affected should be kept apart from the others, and, their milk having been sterilised, fed to calves from healthy cows. It had been shown that a herd badly affected could in this way be raised to its originally sound condition in three years. Lumpy jaw was dangerous because communicable ; but, being less prevalent,-ithe best means of dealing with it was to kill the cow and burn the carcase, as only valuable animals were worth the treatment which wa3 beneficial in the early stages. Pleura and anthrax were well under control, and opthalmia in herds was undesirable, because it seriously lessened the milk yields. The veterinary surgeon had little encouragement, and he claimed to have personally done more than the State in the investigation of disease. It was hardly necessary to point out that healthy herds were the very basis of success in the butter export industry. Having had some 15,000 or 16,000 animals not all cattle, of course—through his hands, he

knew what he was saying—and it was capable of proof—that hundreds of diseased cattle were being milked at 1 the present time, and that the health of their herds was no better than in Great Britain. He had brought with him the udder of a cow thoroughly saturated with tuberculosis, and that cow was being milked three days ago. No man cared to admit, of course, that he had disease in his herd ; but everyone had lost cattle, and such cases when reported were submitted to the inspection of men who generally knew less about it than the dairyman himself. A course of veterinary science would be invaluable to most dairymen, as enabling them to identify disease and to select healthy stock, ana" his experience had been that the owner who knew most about veterinary science was the most satisfactory client. He was very glad to notice that veterinary instruction was being made a part of the course for students at the Dookie and Longerenong Agricultural Colleges, and the benefit of it would be widely experienced in the future. As giving some guide to what he considered necessary for the thorough inspection of dairy herds, Mr Kendall read a list of suggestions which he had drawn up at the request of the Central Board of Health. Having expressed his readiness to answer questions on any point, Mr Kendall gave some interesting information on different ailments in the herds of which dairymen present had had experience, with suggestions for treatment. A hearty vote of thanks was accorded him.