FACIAL ECZEMA EPIDEMIC

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4044, 6 May 1938, Page 5

FACIAL ECZEMA EPIDEMIC

SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. MORE RESEARCH OFFICERS ARRIVE. That the Government is concentrating as many research officers as possible in the Waikato area to investigate the facial eczema problem is indicated by the arrival of further scientific workers in the district. Dr E. Marsden secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, arrived at Hamilton on Tuesday and will spend several days in the district to carry out a systematic investigation. Accompanying Dr Marsden is Dr G. E. Cunningham, director of the plant disease division, and Mr N. H. Taylor, an officer of the soil survey department. Intensive research work is being prosecuted at the Ruakura Farm, where experimental work is being carried out by Mr F. L. Filmer, coordinating officer in the present investigations, Dr F. B. Shortland, agricultural chemist, Wellington, Mr N. T. Clare, assistant chemist, Wellington, and Mr S. B. Josland, bacteriologist, Wallaceville. ASSISTANCE OF FARMERS. Considerable assistance has been given the officers of the Department of Agriculture in their investigational work throughout the Waikato and Northern King Country by members of the special farms committee. The seven veterinarians now carrying out investigations in various centres of the district with the co-operation of farmers have collected a mass of data that should prove of invaluable help in discovering the cause of the disease. IN THE TE RORE DISTRICT. EFFECTS MAY BE FELT LATER. QUESTION OF RE-STOCKING. “Te Rore district is one of the favoured parts of the (Waikato,” declared an old settler there this week when referring to the losses sustained by some dairymen and sheepowners in the epidemic. He went on to point out that the district had a splendid water supply to practically every farm, well-shaded paddocks, good reserves of hay and ensilage, and a splendid sward of grass in all paddocks. His inquiries showed that only isolated cases of the eczema had occurred, individual farmers reporting one or a few, but none had more than a dozen affected. Hei expressed the conviction that the trouble originated and developed as a stomach complaint, affected by the liver, and aggravated by the change-over from bare paddocks to lush pastures.

“As Te Rore district had no bare paddocks, there was no radical changeover, and therefore no stomach trouble for the sheep and cattle,” added the farmer. “However, you can put* forward my opinion to the effect that we are not yet through the trouble by any means. I am convinced the farmers do not fully realise what is going to happen in August and September. I am basing my remarks on experiences of the 1935 outbreak, and say without hesitation that the lambing average will bo well below average, for young lambs will die in scores. They will be the progeny of ewes affected at present. Now, take the position a little bit further. The farmers who lost their sheep this autumn will want to re-stock their farms to cope with the abundance of grass that has grown as a result of the top-dressing carried out in the past few weeks. There will be more grass than can be made into ensilage or hay. Where will the farmer get sheep to re-stock his farm ? Prices will be high, because of the market shortage all over the province—yes, down in Poverty Bay, too. Now, it is only a rough computation to arrive at the conclusion that there will be 10,000 fewer lambs for the export market next spring and summer than there was this summer. There is, of course, the natural corollary that with fewer lambs to rear, kill, and export, here will be less employment—and the consequent increase in unemployment. I might be wrong, but think it out for yourselves,” concluded the farmer.