FACIAL ECZEMA IN SHEEP.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XII, Issue 5, 20 May 1916, Page 386

FACIAL ECZEMA IN SHEEP.

A number of inquiries have been received lately regarding facial eczema in sheep, which has been fairly prevalent this autumn in the Poverty Bay and East Cape districts, cases having also been reported from North Auckland. The disease and its treatment was described by Dr. J. A. Gilruth, then Chief 'Veterinarian, in the 1908 Annual Report of the Department. The subject was further investigated and dealt with by Dr. C. J. Reakes, Director of the Live-stock Division, and Dr. H. A. Reid, Officer in Charge of the Wallaceville Veterinary Laboratory, in the 1910 Annual Report — following an outbreak which was distinctly more extensive than this year's trouble. • A statement regarding the disease, made by Dr. Reakes on a recent visit of inspection to the Poverty Bay district in connection with the latest outbreak, is reproduced for general, information, as follows In the investigation-work carried out by the Department with regard to ■ facial eczema of sheep special. attention has naturally been paid to the point of determining the actual causative agent. Repeated experiments have entirely failed to show that the trouble is in any degree infectious. Healthy sheep shut up in a small loose-box for days together with affected ones have remained perfectly healthy, even though some had the skin of the face scarified in order to provide greater facility for direct infection. ... „ The so-called nasal bot is looked upon with suspicion in some quarters, but it has nothing to do with facial eczema. This parasite is widely distributed among sheep in the North Island, and if it caused facial eczema sheepowners would have a bad time. Our experience of the nasal bot is that it is only very rarely that it even causes any discomfort to sheep harbouring it, and our knowledge of its wide distribution is only gained by the examination of the heads of perfectly healthy sheep after the animals have been slaughtered. Facial • eczema is undoubtedly due entirely, to dietetic causes, and the flush of autumn feed is responsible for its appearance this year. Had this feed come away earliersay, in February —-far more trouble would have been experienced, and losses similar to those of a few years back would have recurred. r But it may .be expected that the advent of the frosts and the consequent check to the growth of herbage will have a good effect in preventing much further trouble. ' The result of all our investigations and observations may be summed up as follows : Sheep do not digest and assimilate quick-growing, rank

autumn feed well, especially when, as is common with sheep which have been done well, their livers are in a fatty condition, and more or less fermentation of the imperfectly digested food takes place in the digestive tract, with the result that gases are. formed and absorbed into the system. These act as a sort of slow poison, - causing, to use a common expression, “ the blood to get out of order,” and producing depression, and also an inflammatory condition of the skin of the ears and face, which is accompanied by intense irritation. The unfortunate sheep in its endeavour to allay this irritation butts its head against stumps, posts, &c., scratches at it with its hind feet, and soon breaks the skin, enabling dirt with its accompanying casual germs to get into the skinabrasions, and sets up further trouble. The eyes often are also involved in this. Sheep taken in the earlier stages, properly treated and promptly changed into more suitable pasture, will usually quickly recover. The best treatment is to change to short sweet pasture (when it can be got, but a change, anyway), and the application of a 5-per-cent, solution of Jeyes fluid, Kerol, Izal, or some other coal-tar product of a similar nature to the skin of the face and ears. The administration internally of 4 oz. of Epsom salts is also very valuable when it can be done. The coal-tar application does good by allaying the irritation. But the great thing is prevention, and on going over some of the rich lush paddocks near Gisborne it is clear to me that prevention there is a difficult matter when all the paddocks on a farm are alike in the abundance of feed—just the thing for cattle-grazing, but not the thing for sheep. Facial eczema is never heard of in country where feed is shorter and the climate colder, conditions which are natural and healthful for sheep. Poverty Bay sheepowners should realize that this is the crux of the whole position. They have rich land, a warm climate, and year by year, whenever a flush of autumn feed comes along, facial eczema is likely to be troublesome, and they should be on. the alert to do whatever is possible by adjusting feeding-conditions to the best advantage, under existing circumstances in each place, to do whatever they can to prevent its onset. Commercial necessities do hot always fit in with the natural requirements of sheep, and farmers rightly want to make the best returns possible from their flocks. To do this they must risk trouble like facial eczema occurring from time to time, but, having a knowledge of its nature and its cause, they should do the best they can, compatible with-commercial requirements,- so as to prevent it. In connection with the local outbreak excellent work has. been done by Messrs. Collins and Broom, Veterinarians of the Department, and Mr. Kingston, Inspector of Stock at Gisborne. It should be noted that, as anticipated in the above remarks, the trouble has quickly subsided in the Gisborne district.

Unqualified Veterinary Surgeon.— At Oamaru, on 19th April, T. Gordon Lennox, charged with illegal use of the'letters “ C.V.5.L.,” was convicted and fined fio, with 7s. costs.