SWINE FEVER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 116, 19 May 1933, Page 8

SWINE FEVER

NO FRESH CASES TRENCHES BEING DUG. WELLINGTON, May 18. Labour troubles in connection with the digging of trenches for the burying of the diseased pigs on Johnsonville farms ended yesterday afternoon, as the result of a deputation to the Unemployment Board from the Johnsonville relief workers, when it was arranged that the men were to receive 12s 8d per day for digging the trenches only, none but Johnsonville relief workers to be employed. Forty-five men were engaged by the certifying officer there this morning, and it is anticipated that all the pigs will be destroyed and buried shortly. The Department of Agriculture is taking complete charge of the slaughter and burial of the pigs on the affected farms. No further cases of infection, stated the Director-Gen era! of Agriculture (Dr. C. J. Reakes), have been reported, but a close inspection is beiqg maintained throughout the district. No Rask to Human Beings. It is reported that sales of pork and bacon have fallen off as the result of the outbreak. Dr. Reakes was most emphatic that it was impossible for human beings to be affected as the result of the swine fever. “There seems to be a feeling abroad,” he said, “that there is a risk in eating pork or bacon because of the outbreak, but people may rest assured that swine fever is absolutely incapable of injuring human beings in any way. It is perhaps needless to say that none of the pigs being slaughtered, because they are contacts with affected pigs, will be used for food, and no pigs are allowed to go off these farms alive.” It has been suggested that burning would be a better and safer method of disposal of the carcases than burying, but departmental officials state that it is unnecessary, and more costly and troublesome. To burn a cow effectively, as is done elsewhere, in the case of foot-and-mouth disease, takes some three days, and the animal has to be placed on a platform over a trench, with the fire underneath it. Nature of the Disease. A full statement of facts relating to the disease is being prepared by the Department of Agriculture. The following brief outline was given to-day by Mr. Lyons, Director of the Live Stock Division, and Mr. Barry, District Superintendent of the Division. The period of incubation, before the symptoms appear in the pig, may be from two to ten days. The disease is of three types—acute, semi-acute and chronic. In the very acute form the pig may die in twenty-four hours, but in the chronic form the animal may linger for weeks. Young pigs are more commonly affected by the acute type of disease, while grown pigs, such as sows, generally get the chronic form, but many get the acute type also. The diseases is not due to a bacillus, but to a virus, an ultra-miscroscopic organism that cannot be seen by the highest form of microscope. Putrefaction of the earcase destroys the virus. In view of the appearance of the disease it is highly desirable that where offal and garbage is fed to pigs it should be very thoroughly boiled. Though the decomposition of the carcase kills the virus, it may survive, where deposited upon the ground, for periods varying from 14 to 21 days.