THE HUSK, HOOSE, OR THREADWORM IN STOCK.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 544, 30 September 1881, Page 2

THE HUSK, HOOSE, OR THREADWORM IN STOCK.

At tbe request of several sheepowners on tbe Peninsula who have latterly lost a number of (principal y boggetts) through bronchial Worms, we publish the following letter on the subject from the Field, hoping it may be of general utility. The disease, though well-known in England, has only recently been noticed in New Zealand, and it is thought that it is one of the principal causes of the heavy mortality to stock, particularly boggetts and calves, from which stockowners bave suffered for several seasons past. Sir, —During my visit into Nottinghamshire last summer, and staying with my relative, alarge sheep fanner, near Sherwood Forest, I was much struck with the very large and terrible mortality amongst the sheep. In these days of dear mutton it was to me an alarming fact to learn that fifty per cent, die from tbe causes I have described above ; and I bave now, in my leisure, waded through a mass of notes and experiments which I offer to your notice. Farmers will doubtless preceive that I am a little out of my element when writing about tbe diseases pertaining to animals, my work being more in the animals called human, and therefore tbey will excuse my defects. It appears tb it the disease is first noticed at the age of four and a half months and may be looked for about the month of July. The latter end of June the lambs will appear as well as possible, with the wool firm, hard, close, and healthy, and tbe best promise of making sound and mature sheep. So soon as the disease appears the animal loses its rotundity, tho conjunctiva becomes very pale and bloodless ; there is loss of appetite and continual cough ; the animal stands with its back arched and head hanging downwards, the nose on the ground ; the wool becomes rugged and appears to have lost al tone, so that after a shower of rain it no longer protects the animal, but allows the wet to penetrate to its skin ; diarrhoea then comes on, threadworm may be found in the lung, and death quickly ensue*". I am told that every known remedy has been tried, such as turpentine, sulphur, sulphurous acid,cii iorinettunigations, artificial feeding, &c. all without a satisfactory result. Armatigo says, as a preventive, all clovers, particui irly second cropj, and grass which has !r.*en eaten off by older animals, should be avoided ; young and sound pastures should be made use of, or those that have been "left at rest for some time. He also says that he has found large bunches of worms matted together in the gullet, and these are supposed by some means to bo passed into the lung.

Now, this fatal disease of lambs is caused undoubtedly by the presence of a thin thread-like worm, the Strongylus filaria, infesting the bronchial tubes, larynx, and lung tissue, and hence the fatal difficulty of its eradication. Varieties of this worm may infest many parts of tbe body, even the gall bladder, The specimens of S. filaria I have seen are from one to Ihree inches in length, and about the thickness of a fine white cotton. How do they get there? Some say that the ova (microscopic) are taken up in the circulatory system, by absoiption from the stomach, and pass through the tender tissues of the lung into the bronchid tubes so that the ova were originally taken up"

by the animal in its food ; but I am prepared neither to advance nor endorso any theory as to their presence in the lungs. When these worms infest the intestines only they do not prove fatal.

Fuller says that the disease is rapidly on the increase in England and the United States, and prevails mostly in low damp situations; but the place where my experiments were conducted was exactly the opposite, being high, dry, and well ventilated. On clay land, where rod clover is mostly grown, we do not find the disease, [n tbe human subject, either vegetable or animal parasites have been found in most parts of the body ; the true hydatid or fluke has been found by Andrew in the pulmonary veins ; Trichina spiralis in muscle, as also Eilaria medinensis or Guinea worm ; infinitely small worms in blood, Filaria oculi in the eye, Strongylus gigas in the kidney, and many others, besides tbe variety of tape worms which fiind their way into the body through drinking water in the ova stage. As a rule, I have found that farmers pay the least possible attention to tbe water consumed by their flocks, and have constantly seen the ponds loaded with filth aud refuse from farm yards ; what is more common than to see cows, ducks, pigs, &c. all drinking and wallowing in water into which their excreta are invariably dropped !

Joly, speaking of tho Filaria cordis in the seal, I believe expresses his opinion that the eggs find their way with the food, and, entering into the circulatory system of the blood, find their proper nidus and become developed. In the post-mortems of the lambs I always found the worms in the bronchial tubes and smaller ramfications of the same, some singly and others clustered together, and covered with a viscid mucus; the membrane lining the tubes was in an acutely inflamed condition, as was also the proper lung tissue, many parts of tho lung being completely hepatised, but rarely in a softening or breaking up condition ; nor was pleuritic adhesion common. Now as to treatment My patients were very numeious, and, not restricted as in the human subject, I had the privliege of kill or cure, and a speedy inspection after death, as my friend said a few more or less did not matter, as he was loosing heart by the continued losses.

My plan was to find a room as nearly airtight as possible, and by hurdles and straw to make the roof still lower, say 6ft. high ; into this room I placed forty sheep so that it was absolutely impossible for another sheep to enter. I had previously arranged one of the most powerful steam-spray producers, which would act for two hours continuously. I charged its receptacle with one part of Calvert's glacial carbolic acid to forty parts of warm water, and lighting the lamp shut the door, keeping the sheep inside for one hour when the atmosphere became so dense as to be like ft thick fog. The sheep were then let out, and appearsd in high spirits, and ravenously partook of food, seemingly much refreshed by this heroic treatment. Many more batches were operated on in a similar way, and in some instances sheep that appeared about to die, and too ill to take from tbe field, were carried to the spray and the mouth held open for five minutes, and with tbe same satisfactory result. I think the moisture of the vapor was grateful to the animals, and very much modified its potency'to the inllamed lungs.

I will conclude by saying that what I have detailed is absolute fact, and I am prepared to verify it. I wrote to my relative to send me up some more worms for miroseopic specimens. He says, long after 1 left: "No chance has occurred to fiil the bottle with worms. Nodeaths.no worms. Afteryouleft the lambs wonderfully improved, and I tried experiments with one in twenty for half an hour, and with bonefit. Six of the worst lambs turned out so good that they realised at market 52h. Gd. each. Many writers tell us that if we will feed wel; with dry food, cake and corn, the disease may appear but with tha extra strength of this food tbey will recover. This is not the fact; the disease will attack the strongest, however well it may have been fed. 2:3. Clapham-road. ' William Soper, M.I"LC.S.E.,L.S.A. Mr Reginald Foster, of Amberley, writing on the subject, says : — " The remedial treatment recommended is turpentine, in doses of a quarter of an ounce given in oil. A simple and more direct remedy is to make tbe sheep inhale fumes of sulphur in a shed. In advanced cases, where diarrhoea has set in, some medicine to act on the stomach would also be necessary. As this is a matter of great importance to stockowners and farmers, I havo thought it advisable to make it known at once through your columns. I hope that any owner who may be suffering losses in their young stock will investigate the matter for themselves. I shall be glad to visit any flock in the northern district, and to communicate with anyone who is interested in this subject.