FACIAL ECZEMA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4047, 13 May 1938, Page 5

FACIAL ECZEMA

THE EPIDEMIC NOW ABATING. EFFECT OF COLDER WEATHER. As a result of the cold weather-pre-vailing, the epidemic of. facial eczema among stock shows definite signs of abating. From al! quarters there are fewer reports of fresh cases of eczema and many of the animals which contracted the disease are now making better progress toward recovery. Messrs E. Bruce Levy, director of the grass-land division, and Messrs N. H. Taylor, pedologist, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, are now in Waikato, and are,, carrying out experiments with the soils and grasses in affected areas. All the work is being conducted under the direction of Mr J. F. Filmer, veterinary specialist. THE PEAR PASSED. POSITION IN NORTHERN KING COUNTRY. Although individual cases of staggers among cattle are still being reported, it is felt by stock-owners, that the peak of the malady has now been left behind. Facial eczema among flocks, however, is causing sheep-owners grave concern, and many recurring cases are being reported daily in northern King Country districts, flock-owners suffering considerable losses by infection and mortality among sheep. It is a strange fact that in-several instances where sheepmen have suffered severe losses among thejr flocks other owners quite close to the infected flocks have escaped the malady in connection with their sheep. Many remedies to combat the outbreak of facial eczema have been suggested, but so far none has been effective. j Farmers* with life-long experience among sheep are at a loss to account for the cause of the disease, or to provide a remedy to cure infected animals, or to prevent the spread of the trouble. Those settlers who have forsaken dairying to commence sheep-farming, and purchased sheep at high values, are especially hard hit by the outbreak of the disease. HORSES AFFECTED. Several valuable horses in the Otorohanga district have succumbed recently to an unknown complaint, but which some farmers believe to be allied to the scourge that is decimating the sheep flocks and cattle herds. In the Kio Kio district one settler lost two draught horses, worth £5O each, and another settler lost a farm-horse which he valued at £6O. Post-mortem examinations showed similar symptoms to those found in cattle that had died from the prevailing malady. Some farmers blame top-dressing, others bone-dust, and many think that ergot is the primary cause of the malady.