MORTALITY AT LAMBING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19622, 3 May 1938, Page 15

MORTALITY AT LAMBING

FACIAL ECZEMA EFFECTS LESSONS FROM 1935 DISEASE IN HUMANS Losses at lambing and calving time are expected among stock which has been subject to facial eczema recently. That was the experience in 1935, and similar losses are expected to take place this year: In 1935 a high proportion of ewbs that had recovered from eczema were in such poor condition at lambing time that they then died. A good number of the lambs also died at birth, or if they survived were poor in physique. In. the Manawatu district, from 10 to 15 per cent of the sheep are affected. A curious case worthy of note is that one farm is free from the disease, although five surrounding farms are affected.. The fortunate farmer in this case has had his sheep grazing during the dry spell On swamp land and they have had the benefit of green feed during the worst of the hot summer and autumn and thus avoided the ill-effects of the sudden flush of late grass.

A Doctor’s Suggestion

The similarity in the clinical picture of facial eczema, Which has affected thousands of sheep and cattle in the Auckland district., and an obscure ailment known as Weil’s disease, which occurs sometimes in. humans, was suggested by an Auckland medical specialist as a possible line of investigation. Both troubles possess the same symptoms as cirrhosis of the liver, jaundice and various skin manifestations. ,

The facial eczema was only an outward expression of an inward disease which was a cirrhosis of the liver and, associated with the wasting of this important organ; was' a consequent condition of jaundice, he said. Indications of this may have been noticed by housewives in yellow fat and yellow meat sold in the past few months. In older medical books, Weil’s disease was described as occurring particularly among people, such as butchers, who were obliged to handle shebp or cattle in d hot or humid season. As late as 1935, however, it was found that men working in the Lohddfi sdwbrs had bfe£n affected to a fairly considerable extent. Although the infection is of somewhat uncertain bacteriology, it had been found to be established in fungoid growths and, as these obviously thrived in sewers, there seemed no reason why they should not flourish in pasture during the past season which had been so favourable to fungus growths.