FIGHTING DISEASE

Waipa Post, Volume 45, Issue 3250, 3 November 1932, Page 6

FIGHTING DISEASE

NOTABLE RESEARCH WORK. A BLOWIFLY-P.RO OF RAM IN QUEENSLAND. Already of inestimable value to stock-owners, By diagnosing diseases in stock, by recommending suitable treatment, and by research designed to prevent the occurrence of these diseases, the operations of the Government Animal Health Station at Yeerongpilly (Queensland) are now being largely'reorganised and extended, and the sphere of its usefulness correspondingly increased (comments the Brisbane Courier). The work of dealing with the effects of the tick pest and with tick fever, its prevention and cure, is but one of the many functions of the station; but it is one of great importance, and so efficiently is it done and so negligible are the losses of stock commit-

ted to its care that its services are

enlisted by owners far and near. Thus it has had, and has to-day, many wellknown bovine visitors which have been, and are being, immunised against tick fever. One such aristocrat is Tocal Grandmaster, from Tocal, in New South Wales, which was the champion Hereford bull at the last Brisbane Show. He has been inoculated as a protection against tick fever, is now convalescent, and in fine fettle. These animals are treated with scrupulous care in the period of from 42 to 60 days in which they are inmiates of the station. They are closely observed throughout; their temperatures are taken twice a day, blood smears for microscopic examination are taken once a day: their diet

is studied, and altogether they are the objects of a sympathetic and scientific hospital system which ensures safhty and success. Having been made tolerant to the dreaded! tick fever, the animals are restored to their owners. . The station also sells to stock-owners steers obtained from clean country, inoculated at the institution with blood containing the orv, iganism of tick fever, and which, havbeen thus treated, are found to the power of transmitting the tick-fever organism to susceptible stock. The blood is taken from them as required, and used by the owners in immunising other animals. These • treated steers are known as “ bleeders” and should a stock-owner not be so fortunate as to possess one he •y: can purchase from the Government %aiion a supply of blood taken from a tested “bleeder.” _ In the laboratory is prepared tor

distribution a vaccine that can be used with perfect safety for the protection of cows against the blackleg disease. At the station, also, stock are inoculated against pleuro-pneumonia, and, if necessary, they are tested to ascertain whether tuberculosis is present. BLOWFLY PEST.

The blowfly pest, which, in some years in particular, has caused enormous losses in the sheep industry, also has had attention here, and even at present a merino ram which, it is claimed, is immune to the attacks of that insect, is under observation in the paddocks at Yeerongpilly. The animal has been sent by Mrs Anhauser, of Cunnamulla. It is a good flock ram which, the owner declares, is not only itself immune, but will transmit the immunity to its progeny. The director of the health station sa d recently that if these claims were substantiated the value of the animal would be practically illimitoble. USE OF GUINEA PIGS.

Scores of guinea pigs and many rabbits —pretty little black, white, brown, and grey creatures—are kept for the making of bacteriological tests. They are inoculated with blood taken from animals said to be diseased and placed under observation. They sometimes are given food which is said to have caused trouble in stock. Thus, some of the guinea pigs are now being fed on a kind of bone-meal which, it was suggested, had caused sickness and death in cattle, but so far the little animals, which are very susceptible to human and animal troubles and diseases, have shown no illeffects. Again, by way of experiment, some of the guinea pigs were given finge rcherries—a wild fruit said to cause blindness in persons who eat them. .There is, however, no sign of blindness in the guinea pigs. They appear t obe particularly well and happy. FEEDING EXPERIMENTS.

Extensive animal nutrition experiments are planned, and at the moment hundreds of chickens, in d'fferent pens, are being fed with various measurements and qualities of food, and the results tabulated. They have the benefit of artificially-heated brooders, and there are even little hospital sections for sick birds.

These are but a few of the station’s functions, and they are quickly being extended. The Government has approved considerable additions to the administrative and laboratory block, and, with the operations under the aegis of the new Animal Health Board, the higlh deputation of the establishment will be much enhanced.

Mr J. A. Rudd is the director of the station, and the Board consists of the Minister off Agriculture and Stock (Mr F. A. Bullock), who is the chairman and has had a wide experience in veterinary subjects; Professors E. J. Goddard and H. C. Richards, of the University of Queensland; Mr C. McGrath, the Government supervisor of dairying; Dr Gifford Croll, and Mr J. Mcßobert, the last-named representing the farming interests. The bacteriologist is Mr St. George Thorn; Mr F. Thomson is assistant bacteriologist, Mr F. Roberts, M.Sc., parasitologist, and there are two veterinary surgeons, Messrs A. F. H. Ohman, M.V.Sc., and D. Forsyth Stewart, B.V.Sc., all constituting a board of notable scientists and experts.