STOCK DISEASES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 245, 28 July 1937, Page 6

STOCK DISEASES

MEANS OF PREVENTION.

VALUE OF LIME IN THE SOIL.

ADDRESS TO FARMERS. Colonel Stafford (veterinary surgeon, of Lincoln College) addressed the Hinds branch gf the New Zealand Farmers’ Union last evening on the causes of disease in stock and the means of improving tliedr health and eliminating disease.

Colonel Stafford emphasised the very close relationship between food and disease and that the changing system of farming was introduced by problems in maintaining the health of stock. Research workers tried to find the fundamental cause of disease and aimed at preventing disease by removing the causes rather than curing by empirical means, since any animal which had been diseased was never again the same. Lister found that minute living organisms, bacteria, caused disease and for a time it was thought that all diseases were caused by their action until Hopkins proved that disease could, and would, occur through malnutrition.

Rickets, dopiness in evves, or milk fever, and sorrel poisoning were caused by a deficiency of lime in the blood. Lime was a most important mineral requirement for health and normal growth of stock. Stock on virgin country did not suffer from dopiness or milk fever, which showed that cultivation had reduced the quantity of lime in the soil below the minimum required for healthy stock. Rickets would occur, even if the diet contained sufficient lime, through inability to assimilate it. Experiments showed that puppies after weaning, if fed on skim milk and oatmeal, would develop rickets, but that if the oatmeal were exposed to sunshine for six hours before feeding,

the growth of the puppies would he normal and healthy, thus proving that direct sunshine promoted the assimilation of the lime contained in the food. Lime in healthy stock was present in the blood stream in the proportion of ten milligrams to 100 cubic centimetres of the blood. When the lime content dropped to 7 milligrams, the animal lost nerve control and staggered, at 5 became comatose and at 2 death occurred. Lime was also most essential for pregnant stock. A lamb at birth contained 2ozs of lime in its body and at 14 days 4ozs, all supplied from the mother. If the mother did not derive a sufficient supply of lime from her food, she would draw oil the lime in her own system, since it was a law of nature that the species was always saved at the expense of the individual.

Milk fever (dopiness) and sorrel poisoning were caused by a deficiency of lime in the blood and the symptoms of each were identical. Sorrel, pine needles and rhubarb contained oxatio acid and when eaten by stock the acid entered the blood stream by combining with the lime induced the condition known as sorrel poisoning. Milk fever seemed to be due to some upset in the nervous system of the sheep, but was not fully understood. It appeared to occur more frequently prior to-lambing and outbreaks had been known in ewes shifted from poor to good feed, in ewes receiving a sudden check due to bad weather or feed shortage and in ewes badly wintered. Milk fever could be prevented by adequate topdressing of pastures with, necessary even on limestone country, and if watering troughs were used, chloride of lime mixed in the proportion of lib to 150 gallons of water, would supply the necessary lime. Ewes, especially at lambing, should not be kept in sheds for more than 12 hours.

Summer fallowing restored the fertility of the soil, but the use of super in overwhelming quantities would reduce the available lime content oi the soil. Milk fever and sorrel poisoning could be treated by injections of calcium gluconate or calcium chloride. Calcium chloride should only be used by an expert. Calcium gluconate should be injected into a fold of the skin, free of wool, behind the foreleg. The dose should be from two ounces for small ewes to four ounces for large ewes. The injection should be made quickly, but should take about five minutes. Sorrel paddocks should not be fed in dull or wet weather when the oxalic acid content is high, but in sunny weather the acid content is much lower.

Colonel Stafford appealed to farmers to do their part in stamping out hydatid disease, which could be reduced to a negligible quantity in New Zealand in five years if all owners of dogs would treat their dogs regularly. The dog was the host of the tapeworm, which caused the disease. This tapeworm was a three-segment worm whose iiead remained fixed to the walls of the intestine, while the developed segments which contained the eggs were deposited on the ground, generally in shady places, where the eggs, under suitable conditions, developed into larvae. The larvae found their way into their hosts, cattle, sheep, pigs and man, through being, present oil’the food, grass, lettuce, etc., or in drinking water. Their presence was usually most noticeable on the livers of infected stock. The dog became infected again by eating infected offal; and thus the cycle was completed. All offal should he boiled

before feeding to dogs and pigs. The most practical way to break the life cycle of the tapeworm and wipe out the disease was to treat the dog and keep him free of the tape worm. The drug used was arecaline hydrebromide, the dose being one-half grain to every 201 b of the dog’s weight. The dog to ho treated should he shut up without food hut with plenty of water to drink for 12 hours before dosing. Fifteen minutes after dosing every tapeworm would be voided. Should the dog have a . jit a dessertspoonful of sweet spirits of nitre in a tablespoon of water should he given. The treatment should he repeated in six weeks’ time, and thereafter every month. Were all dogs treated regularly in New Zealand this dread disease in man would soon he almost unknown, and the health of stock would he greatly benefited. Air H. L. Chisnall thanked the speaker for his address, and those piesent heartily endorsed his remarks.