HYDATID DISEASE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20851, 6 October 1937, Page 3

HYDATID DISEASE

PREVENTIVE MEASURES SERIOUS MENACE TO COMMUNITY Mr E. J. Lukey, M.R.C.V.S., of the Department of Agriculture, has been giving a series of addresses in various parts of South Canterbury on the incidence of hyditid disease and the preventive measures that should be adopted to minimise the spread of this dreaded disease which is exacting such a heavy toll in our midst. Last week Mr Lukey addressed meetings at Hilton and Maungati and among those present were a number of women. In explaining the nature of the disease, its distribution by dogs and its close association with man, MT Lukey said that hydatid disease was recorded in all countries. It occurs with greatest frequency in those countries in which sheep are pastured in large numbers, these animals acting as ideal intermediate hosts. Other factors, such as the method of guarding and working sheep, the economic status of the people and the general level of education in hygienic matters, were also of great importance. The highest incidence of the disease, howeverw was found in the South American Republics, Australia, and New Zealand. The small island of Iceland, said Mr Lukey, was notorious for many years for the frequency of the disease. In the middle of the 19th century oneseventh of the population had hydatid disease, while in 1857 one-fifth of the people harboured a cyst in their bodies. This country depended in the main on sheep breeding, the animals being guarded and worked by innumerable dogs. There were four times as many sheep per herd in Iceland as in England, and more than one in every four sheep harboured a parasite. The chief breaches of ordinary hygienic laws were the habit of living in filthy dwellings—the dogs having free access —the habit of giving the dogs food plates to lick and the contamination of food, vegetables and drinking water, the last named being invariably obtained from open swamps and bogs. Of late years, however, great improvements k.'.ve been effected, and owing to better education in hygienic matters and the introduction of legislation controlling dogs, the disease has become much less frequent. In 1920 the incidence had fallen from 1 in 40 to 1 in 2000.

Hydatid disease has always been relatively rare in the British Isles, although 23,000,000 sheep are pastured and numerous dogs are kept. This is due to the comparatively high standards of public hygiene, the careful regulation of abattoirs and meat Inspection, the small number of sheep slaughtered for home consumption, the care taken in feeding dogs and good water supplies. Sporadic human cases regularly occur as the reports of various hospitals indicate, but the total number of cases recorded annually is small. (To be Continued)