COMMON PARASITES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18659, 30 August 1930, Page 13

COMMON PARASITES

TROUBLESOME AFFECTIONS. CAUSE OF UNTHRIFTINESS. Lice and worms are the most common parasites found in pigs. The fact that the former is so prevalent in many parts shows how little the farmer is alive to the danger of these parasites. Their presence on the pig (writes an officer of the New South Wales Department of Agriculture) causes unthriftiness and slow fattening, and the constant irritation of the skin and falling off in condition are sources of continual loss. Often, owing to the scratching and rubbing, inflammatory and necrotic processes set up, and, it is stated, on good authority, such infectious diseases as swine fever may be transferred by these insects. The lice may be easily killed by the application of a 2 per cent, solution of any common coal-tar disinfectant, such as lysol and creosol. Fat and kerosene (one part of kerosene to fifteen parts fat) is also effective, and good results are obtained from kerosene emulsion made up of kerosene (2 gallons), hard soap (lib.), and water Bgal.). One gallon of this solution should be added to 9gal. of water for dipping.

Treatment should be carried out at seven-day intervals for three dippings to be effective, and the pigs should not be exposed to the sun after treatment, or scalding may result. The houses and posts where the pig has been rubbing should also be sprayed with a 5 per cent, solution of disinfectant to kill the lice which have left the pig after feeding. Parasitic worms may be found in the stomach and intestines, or in the fat surrounding the kidney. The former may be responsible for diarrhoea, unthriftiness, some forms of pneumonia, and even more serious conditions, sometimes resulting in the animal’s death, while to the latter are ascribed many of the cases of paralysis of the hindquarters which are by no means uncommon.

Medicinal treatment, comprising the use of such drugs as sulphate of iron, oil of turpentine, and areca nut is often beneficial, and may cause the expulsion of the parasites, but it is far more profitable to prevent infection than to cure it. The eggs of most worms are passed out in the excreta, and must be swallowed by the animal before they can develop to the mature form. Hence attention to cleanliness in feeding, the prevention of the soiling of the food troughs and the draining and filling in of muddy pools in the pigyards, will in a large measure control the spread of parasitic troubles.