HYDATID DISEASE

Southland Times, Issue 23734, 4 February 1939, Page 14

HYDATID DISEASE

SITUATION CLASSED AS URGENT TREATMENT OF DOGS WITH ARECOLINE

The many thousands of people who examined the hydatid exhibit at spring shows last year have seen what hydatid disease does to man and animals, and their verdict is—it must go, writes Dr E. W. Bennet, of the Department of Hydatid Research and Prevention. People who know do not argue, nor do surgeons, statisticians, meat inspectors, public health officers, professors, medical practitioners, stock inspectors, or members of the House of Representatives. In a country like this, with, our standards of decency and hygiene, k-,rrU+irl disease is intolerable and will

be banished. ~ £ Hydatid disease is a dog-filth disease, j Every one of the thousands of operations in hospitals on account of this « disease has been due to a dog. Every ( one of the 20,000,000 farm animals in- £ fested at present with the disease has ] been infected by a dog. There are no f exceptions/ Every case of hydatids tn . New Zealand; in man or animal, has < been contracted from somebody’s dog. , Two things are urgently necessary— f to make the situation known, and to give owners of dogs, the only people , who can eradicate ’ hydatids, as much . practical assistance as possible. It is ; not that people are being forced into something, but rather it is a matter of putting the weapons of war into the ’ hands of every owner of a dog. The urgency of the situation is clear. : The choice of arecoline is well founded, because it is the only substance that has stood up to the drastic tests and can be reported as satisfactory for the removal of hydatid parasites. There is, to be sure, plenty of argument on what is best for worming dogs; some still argue in favour of arecq nut, which is a failure for removal of hydatid worms, and others swear by charcoal or baking soda or gunpowder. Others again are equally convinced that these are no good for worms, but infallible for distemper. In the face of a national menace there is no time for trifling with absurdities. These people have never seen hydatid worms. The research and the importation of a million and a-half tablets of arecoline and the printing and distributing have all been costly, yet the charge for a dose of the best remedy known is threepence. Last year 5,000,000 livers of lambs and sheep, each worth more than threepence, were found at abattoirs and freezing works to be spoiled by hydatids. . The farmer who allows his dogs to feed on livers and lungs of sheep should know that, although his dogs do not menace so many people, he and his i family are exposed to a risk, and half , of his sheep and cattle are already vic- ' tims. The number who are content with I this is steadily and rapidly decreasing. Those who know are agreed that when a sheep’ is killed the dogs must I be prevented from infecting themselves , with living worm-heads. They agree i that the livers and lungs of dead sheep must be equally destroyed, even if the ? carcasses cannot be. They agree that in spite of difficulties they can and must ’ handle the situation. They insist that no worm-infested, disease-spreading ’ dogs are to be brought, let alone kept, on the property. They welcome the 5 weapons of war, for they agree that hydatids, like leprosy, must go, and go j quickly. ■