FARM AND STATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2578, 12 August 1903, Page 6

FARM AND STATION.

ANTHRAX IS" JfEW ZEILiND. It is high time that the Government proceeded with the erection of sterilising plant at Auckland and the Bluff, as promised, for the sterilisation of imported bones, for recent outbreaks cf anthrax show the imminence of the danger to stock arising from the use of bone manure. At two places in the North Isand — Pukekohe and Mangawhera — and in the South Island at Woodlands, near Invercargill, cattle have recently died in an apparently mysterious manner ; but upon investigation by the officers of the Stock Department the cause of death has been proved to have been anthrax, a disease whose virulence is such as to give sitockowners just cause for alarm. In the Woodlands case steamed Calcutta bones are said to have been employed for the manufacture of bone-dust manure, and in every instance where careful investigation has been made imported bones have been found to 'have caused the trouble. Anthrax from this cause is no new thing in the colony, there having been outbreaks at four . places in the North Island in 1899, three in 1900,- ami three in 1901. Already this year three separate outbreaks have been reported, and it is quite probable that others may yet crop up. As showing the vitality of the anthrax germ and how easily infection is carried we need only cite a case tiiat occurred at Mount Albert, a suburb of Auckland, where a cow and a calf died in 1901. Investigation pointed to the cabbasres srown in the owner's garden, and

which had -been fed to the cow. as the medium of infection. It is almost superfluous to add that the cabbage plot had been manured with bonedust made from imDorted bones. Anthrax is no

respecter of either animals or persons, as the following will show : — At Tamahere. AVaikato. a bea^t died. and. after it

was skinned, three quarters were given to the Natives, the remaining quarter being fed to domestic animals. Next day a cat died, and the following day the dog also succumbed, while a second cat was seriously affected and -was killed. For a day or two the pig was ill, but eventually recovered. The Natives thoroughly cooked their meat, and so escaped harm from the deadly potent germs. In the same year three cows died at Waitara, Taranaki, and in this case the source of the trouble was traced to a crap of turnips grown with manure prepared from imported bones. The wor«t feature of thisv outbreak was that an jic'-isibant of the veterinary expert who m^le the po«t mortem examination of the cows contracted the disease through drying his hands on the towel used for the knives on the occasion referred to. Although the knives had been washed and subsequently wiped and rolled up in the towel <;orne of the deadly germs must 'have been transferred to the towel. The man had a ■-light scratch on his hand, and by the medium of the abraded surface he had become inoculated. Fortunately the ma-n recovered, but already two fatal cases have been recorded. The danger of skinning cattle found dead cannot be too strongly impressed upon farmer*. In the 1902 repcrt of the Department Mr Gilruth i« very emphatic in his warning to the Government. He i-ay 5 : " I desire to now add, deliberately and with a full knowledge of the subject of which I treat, tha:, provided some menus on the lines whi.-li I have indicated are not adopted, I foresee, in the not distant future, <ht transformation of the Auckland district into such a hot-bed of anthrax as can only be compared with the Cumberland district of Australia and certain parts of Russia and India." And yet the remedy is a simple one. Imported bones have to be accompanied by a certificate setting forth that they have been subjected to a steam temperature of 240 degrees Fahrenheit; but ; unfortunately,

experience proves that the certificates are not worth the paper they are written upon. The only certain remedy, therefore, is to insist upon all imported bones being properly sterilised iv the colony. In the face of Mr GilruthV warning no time should be lost by the Government in taking effective means for preventing the introduction of a disease that is at the samp time dangerous v to man and beast. Indefinite promises in reply to questions in the House will not do : the farmers must insist that the longpromised sterilisiug stations be erected without further delay.