PARASITE CONTROL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 132, 21 July 1941, Page 2

PARASITE CONTROL

U.S.A. development USE IN AUSTRALIA Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. Phenotliiazine, a little-known syn-' thctic clicmicr.il originally classed as an insecticide, has come into wide use as a veterinary medicine, to help bulwark the nali-)n J s I cod supplj', T)u Pont chemists said to-dajr. Scrawny cattle, sheep and swine, victims; of internal parasites that sap normal growth, are transiormed into heaithv specimens by administration of the drug, which alsl> has proved effective with poultry, goats and horses. Diseases of farm animals, many of them due to gastro-intcstinal 'worms' cost the country more than 200,000,000 dollars a year, a loss ■ which phenotliiazine may substantially reduce. Losses due to decreased weight, low-grade meat and deterioration of stock were said to be incalculable. Extensive field tests during the past vcar have confirmed earlier conclusions of the cheimical's, performance. The study was conducted with thee o-operation of the U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry and corroborated by investigators in both Canada and Australia. Drugs for treating animals for intestinal parasites are known to chemists as "anthelmintics." Numbers a>' compounds have been used for this purpose, but most arc applicable to only a single typo of the many varieties of parasites infesting livestock. Phenotliiazine is effective on many common intestinal parasites and eliminates the ncc?ssity of specific diagnosis, impractical in large herds and flocks. The drug is being supplied as an unmodified powder form which may be fixed with feed and as a wet table: powder which is easily mixed with water and administered to animals as a drench. The material also is made into capsules and pellets. The drug docs net taint or flavour the meat, even when the animals are slaughtered sihortly after treatment. The therapeutic dosage has no effect on egg production in the poultry. Results of field experiments indicate speedy cures. Sheep which were * treated showed marked increase in weight, and disappearance of glandular swelling—called "poverty jaw" or "bottle neck" by herders. In one test cited, a sick ram recovered fully and gained 51 pounds in three months after a single dose of medicinfe. Application of the drug to poultry is regarded as economically important, as it attacks! the cecal worm, a carrier of the organism which causes the disastrous "blackhead" diseases in turkeys. Phenotliiazine is not prescribed for controlling the disease:, but is believed ot curb losses among infected flocks by checking its spread. Phenotliiazine hasi been known for many years, but until recently, was a chemical curiosity of little use, During the past few years, the Department of Agriculture as well aithe Du Pont Company and others have been carrying on investigational programmes on phenotliiazine for diverse insecticidal uses, such as the control of the codlin moth on apples, the control of.horn-fly in cattle and the treatment of the breeding places of mosquito larvae. It altso has been found a valuable interna) antiseptic in certain human diseases.