ELIMINATION OF HYDATIDS IN N.Z. SHEEP BY LEVY?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 9, 13 March 1950, Page 6

ELIMINATION OF HYDATIDS IN N.Z. SHEEP BY LEVY?

A levy of Is on each infected lamb carcase for a general veterinary service fund to finance a new campaign for the elimination of hydatids in sheep is the latest suggestion for dealing with this disease in New Zealand flocks. In a statement issued to shareholders, the directors of the North Otago Progress League Irrigation Farm, Ltd., said that in round figures the position for 1948-49 was : | Lambs killed for export 12,000,000; affected by hydatids 9,500,000, or 30 per cent. The total lambs tailed in New Zealand numbered 20,000,000 and of this 80 per cent applied throughout it indicated that probably 16,000,000 lambs picked up the disease from infected pastures within a few months of their birth. Criminal Waste This criminal waste could be stopped if concerted action were taken, the directors state, because •hydatid eggs voided by dogs could not survive for more than two or three months in the pasture under the most favourable conditions; hydatid cysts infective to dogs could not survive more than three weeks in a dead carcase; if dogs were not fed on raw offals or allowed to get to dead carcases the hydatid menace would vanish from New Zealand in a short space of time,- the tapeworm stage of the hydatid could be readily removed from the dog by arceoline. It was perfectly obvious, the statement continued that the publicity given to loss in human lives and the general economic loss of the sheepfarming industry—hundreds of thousands of pounds—due to this widespread disease, had completely failed in its objective, and they/ suggested that only by bringing home to each individual sheep farmer his personal loss and responsibility would produce the required concerted action.