BLACKLEG RESTRICTIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 53, 17 October 1911, Page 4

BLACKLEG RESTRICTIONS.

THE NECESSITY FOR CAUTION

The secretary of the Chamber of Commerce has received the following letter from Mr. C. J. Reakes, Director of the Live Stock and Meat Division of the Department of Agriculture:— 1 am in receipt of your letter of the -Ith instant regarding restrictions on the removal of young cattle from Taranaki, and I have noted the request of your chamber. This matter is one which has had my serious consideration of late, realising as I do how the improved values of young stock for sale, as stores, will have stimulated the trade in these animals, consequently making the restrictions as to their removal from the gazetted district appear to cause more difficulty to farmers and dealers. The whole position, however, is that the measures taken by the Government in connection with blackleg have undoubtedly proved exccedingly successful in getting (he disease under control and preventing iis spread to outside districts. It has been suggested to me that the restrictions might be removed so far as they affected animals over a year old. If I could see my way to do this with safety I would be only too glad to meet the views of those interested ; but the point is that I aai

satisfied it would not no v.fo to do so. As an illustration of this I would instance the fact that last >ear, when, wishing to kill a calf with blackleg hy direct inoculation for tho purpose of preparing blackleg vaccine at the AVallacevillc laboratory, I had some difficulty in doing what I wished with comparatively young calves. As you are probably aware, the degree of susceptibility to blackleg varies considerably in individual animals, the condition of the system at the time, no doubt, having an important hearing upon this. On the occasion in question, after inoculating the comparatively young calves unsuccessfully, either becoming affected with the ci .ease, I had to fall back upon an older animal just over a year old. This when inoculated quickly developed the disease and died, thus indicating that its increased age had not given it immunity, and that older animals may be, under certain conditions, even more susceptible to the disease than young ones.