KIDNEYS IN LAMBS

Otago Witness, Issue 3593, 23 January 1923, Page 10

KIDNEYS IN LAMBS

PREVALENCE OF DISEASE. CHRISTCHURCH, January 17. The latest contribution to the discussion here as to retaining kidneys in frozen lamb was supplied to-day, when two badlydiseased kidneys taken from lambs that were slaughtered for export were brought into the Star office tc emphasise the argument that the disease in kidneys is so prevalent as to justify the removal of the kidneys from the carcases before freezing operations. The kidneys had been cased in a very fine mass of fat, and would have been shipped Home if the carcase had not happened to be over 421 b in weight. A butcher’s knife disclosed the very diseased state of the kidneys. Both were enormously big and flabby, and discoloured, and one was full of matter. The fat, however, was beautifully white, and gave no indication of disease. The gentleman who brought the kidneys for inspection said he was at the works for only an hour,

and the discovery of the diseased kidneys came about quite casually as they were thrown out into a bucket. Commenting on the difficulty of detecting disease in kidneys, he said that in all prime lambs in the South Island the kidneys were wholly encased in fat. This being a non-conductor, the kidneys were very hard to freeze, and were not pure at any time. In North Island lamb the kidneys could bo seen, and the disease was more easily detected. In any case, the kidneys were puffy and unfit to eat when they reached the Old Country, and the fat was not edible. Whatever little value there was in the kidneys did not compensate for the retrograde movement, but the price of tne kidneys in London to-day was only Is 3d per dozen.