DAIRY HERD DISEASE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20839, 22 September 1937, Page 3

DAIRY HERD DISEASE

BACTERIOLOGIST’S VISIT PROBLEM OF MAMMITIS The visit of the Waikato of Dr. G. J. Hucker, Chief Bacteriologist at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, represents a definite step on the part of the Government to overcome the alarming incidence of mammitis in this and other dairying districts of the Dominion. Dr. Hucker is recognised as America’s foremost authority on mammitis and he has been engaged for a number of years in an extensive study of diseases affecting the udders of dairy cows. Dr. Hucker, who has been invited to New Zealand by the Dairy Board, is spending several weeks in the Waikato where he intends to investigate the nature of the disease and possibly to make suggestions on how to overcome mammitis, which is taking an increasing toll of Waikato dairy herds. Co-operation with Authorities His purpose is to study the incidence of mammitis under New Zealand conditions, to to-operate both in the field and the laboratory with the Dominion’s research workers upon this vital problem and to confer with the Dominion’s investigational authorities. It is hoped by the Dairy Board that his visit will be of assistance in further clarifying the position so far as a campaign for the curbing of the incidence of mammitis in the Dominion’s herds is concerned. In an interview Dr. Hucker referred to the vastly different conditions of dairying in the United States and New Zealand. American farmers were faced with some difficult problems and the winters were much more severe than in the Dominion. For five

months of the year herds were stabled in large barns, but this factor did not seem to retard production to any extent. The problem of mammitis had not been altogether controlled in America, but considerable progress had been made in this direction. Praise for Dairy Board Dr. Hucker considered that the New Zealand Dairy Board was an excellent body and he expressed the wish that there was a similar body in the States. The board was a credit to the Dominion, which was also fortunate in having as its Director-General of Agriculture such an acknowledged agricultural authority as Mr A. H. Cockayne. During the time he had already spent in the Dominion, said Dr. Hucker, he had had the ready co-pperation of research workers who had placed all their facilities at his command. While in the Dominion, Dr. Hucker intends making a thorough study of prevailing conditions and to contribute in any way possible with the knowledge gained after many years of endeavouring to control mammitis and other diseases in the United States. Dr. Hucker will address a 'public meeting of dairy farmers in Hamilton on the various aspects of mammitis and other diseases.