Hydatid Testing Station Opened

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 101, Issue 1, 15 July 1960, Page 85

Hydatid Testing Station Opened

THE third stage of the campaign to eradicate hydatids from New Zealand began on 24 March when the National Hydatid Testing Station at Taieri was opened. The first and second stages were the formation of voluntary eradication committees and the establishment of, the National Hydatids Council, with regular dosing programmes. MORE than 100 people were present at the opening, which was performed by the chairman of the National Hydatids Council and Assistant Director-General of Agriculture, Dr I. J. Cunningham. Among the guests were representatives of a wide range of organisations interested in the . eradication of hydatids. The station occupies about 1,000 sq. ft. in a hangar of the former R.N.Z.A.F. station at Taieri and will eventually "have a staff of 14 or 15. The station was unique, Dr Cunningham said. Nowhere else was there a unit devoted solely to providing a testing service to support a national campaign for the eradication of hydatids. Dr Cunningham mentioned the value of having the testing station in the ' same building as the Hydatid Research Unit and under the general supervision of the director of the unit, Mr •M.' A. Gemmell. The testing station' would be able to keep abreast of new testing methods as well as get help with urgent- problems. Mr Gemmell ' had developed the diagnostic method that would be used at the station. The old method of preparing samples of dog faeces for examination for the presence of hydatid tapeworm involved individual handling and was very slow. The method worked out by Mr Gemmell enables a number of faecal specimens to be prepared simultaneously and so effects considerable savings in time and labour. Cost “Without the modern technique which has been developed the cost would be enormous, but even now the cost of testing, will be something like

£15,000 a year,” Dr Cunningham said. Extra initial costs would bring the Council’s expenditure this year to about £16,500. This was about half the council’s total funds for the year and was the measure of the council’s recognition of the importance of testing. The site at Taieri had much to commend it, but in serving the whole country it had obvious geographical disadvantages; thousands of samples had to be sent there from all parts of New Zealand. There might be a future need for a station to serve the North Island, and it was something the council would have to consider. Dr Cunningham pointed out that farmers’ committees had been pledged to destroy the hydatid parasite by eliminating the worm from the dog and by preventing reinfection of dogs. Encouragement from the Government, local bodies, and research officers, and from the medical and veterinary professions had helped the formation of voluntary committees, which now numbered more than 800. An important part of their work had been the organisation of over 300,000 dog dosings.

New Dosing Requirements The National Hydatids Council had met the previous day, and during the opening of the station Dr Cunningham announced important changes in the dosing requirements in the national hydatid eradication campaign. The council, while recognising that all dogs must be tested, was keeping constantly under study the intervals at which tests had to be carried out. An interval of three months between tests had been adopted as the standard for the initial phase of the campaign. Now the council considered that educational work on the life history of the tapeworm, on dog hygiene, and on offal disposal was at least as important as dosing and testing. Dogs would be required to be tested for hydatid infection three times a year instead of four. In this way at least one-quarter of the year would be left free for the hydatid control officer to concentrate on the educational side of his work. Local authorities who adopted this lighter schedule were recommended to leave free of dosing the period or periods of the year when the weather was unsuitable

through extremes of either heat or cold. The council had also decided that dosing could be reduced for defined areas when infection was sufficiently low. Such an area must have at least 300 dogs, and not more than 1 per cent of the dog population should be infected with the hydatid tapeworm or the hydatigena tapeworm. The local authority could apply to the National Hydatids Council to have an area declared a “low incidence” one. The relaxation of dosing that would be permitted would be: If low incidence was found at a dosing period in an area, the dogs free of infection could miss the next dosing period, and if at the next dosing period incidence was again low, the clean dogs of that area could be put on once-a-year dosing. The few infected dogs at the first low incidence period would not be excused from the second, normal dosing period. . If a low incidence area slipped back and more than 1 per cent infection was found in the dogs, standard dosing would have to be resumed until low incidence was again attained. “This programme provides a rational use of dosing and testing, and it is hoped it will prove an incentive to individuals and groups to get, and to keep, districts clean,” Dr Cunningham said. Sample Preparation Machine The acting chairman of the Hydatid Research Committee and head of the Department of Pathology, University of Otago, Professor E. F. D’Ath, congratulated the National Hydatids Council on the “vigorous, dedicated manner” in which it was tackling the formidable task facing it. Professor D’Ath referred at length to the sample preparation machine at the station, which, he said, had made the current eradication campaign not only a practical possibility, but an economic proposition. With the manual method first used the laboratory cost of the present programme would have been about £135,000 a year, instead of the £15,000 budgeted for this year’s operating costs. The present machine had originally made it possible to prepare and examine 800 samples a day. With further refinements and a team of six it was now possible to process 2,000 samples a day. Work was proceeding on the final design and fabrication of a more advanced, automatic machine which, with a team of 10, should make it possible for 4,000 to 5,000 samples to be examined a day. This represented more than 1,000,000 samples a year. Some 112,940 samples had been examined since the testing station began work in July last year.

Lambing Device

' I ’HE simple device illustrated is used for lambing cases of abnormal presentation where the head is presented without the legs. The device encases the head, the tapes being tied, firmly so that when pressure is applied the taped end of the funnel grips the lamb behind the head and jaw. Having control over the head enables the operator to repel the lamb into the uterus while its legs are positioned as in a normal presentation. Lambing is simplified by pulling firmly on the narrow end of the device and using the free hand to assist presentation.

The device is made of nylon material. A pattern is cut having a total length of 32 in. with a width of 1 1 in. tapering to 5 in. for the first 7 in. and 5 in. for the remainder. The wide end is folded into a hem and sewn so that a tape can be inserted and moved freely in the fold. The material is folded lengthwise, forming a funnel, sewn together, and turned inside out to prevent the frayed edges causing damage to the ewe. Before use the device should be sterilised and disinfected. The farmer using this device claims that in the last four years he has reduced his losses to negligible proportions. The advantage claimed is that when the device is attached to the head of the lamb the head is not lost when the lamb is repelled into the uterus. The device is flexible, causes no damage to the head or jaws, and is easily carried.

—R. C. CHAMBERS,

Livestock Instructor, Department of Agriculture, Papal(ura