"GREATLY EXAGGERATED"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19694, 28 July 1938, Page 14

"GREATLY EXAGGERATED"

FACIAL ECZEMA LOSSES GISBORNE EXPERIEIN T CE EAST COAST COMMISSION (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, last night. Speaking of facial eczema at the annual meeting of the sheepowners' Federation to-day, Mr. J. S. Jessep, vice-president, said that there had been> three serious outbreaks of this disease. The first had been in 1910, the second in 1935, and the third this year. As East Coast Commissioner, he was directly farming over 100,000 acres of land in the Wairoa, Poverty Bay and Tolaga Bay districts, which ran about 100,000 sheep and 15.000 head of cattle. In 1935, when facial eczema broke out, the farm supervisor, Mr. 11. Symes, took immediate steps to cope with it, with fairly successful results. During the present year, with the experience of three years ago, the same course was followed with the result that, although many areas of East Coast Trust lands had been badly 1 affected, the losses were nothing like what reports would lead one to believe. Disease Not Contagious The disease, us officers of the Department of Agriculture had pointed out, was certainly not contagious. It was a liver disease. How it was caused he was not prepared to say. Certainly the rapid growth of feed was one of the main factors. It was possible that excessive heat had some bearing on the question. However.; that was for scientists to decide. One thing was certain —that sheep could be badly affected with facial eczema and yet be sound the following season. This had been proved on East Coast Trust lands in 1935 when ewes which were so badly affected that scabs formed on their heads and had to be cleaned up by clipping them in a strong solution of kerol and water, were set aside, marked and bred from the following year with a 100 per cent lambing result. Alarming Reports Deprecated Alarming reports had been made concerning sheep in the Waikato that could do no good to the New Zealand meat trade. The outbreak certainly had been severe, but the reports circulated by the press that the loss exceeded 1,250,000 sheep in the Auckland district was exaggerated. In the entire Auckland sheep district, stretching from Cape Runaway, Taupo, Taumaranui, and across to the West Coast and up to the far north of Auckland, there were only 3,800,000 sheep in all In the districts badly affected there were not more than 1,000,000, and. allowing for losses amongst cattle, the estimate of 1,250,000 could be cut down by at least 70 per cent. Mr. Jessep stated that he had had some experience in the frozen meat trade, and could say without hesitation that many good ewes had been killed that; were not seriously affected by facial eczema. The procedure followed, he continued, by the farm managers of the East Coast Trust, was that as soon as a sheep was discovered to be affected, it was dosed strongly for the liver and then put into any kind of rough feed or fed on hay. The outbreak of rash on the face and head was an after-effect and could be dealt with easily.