MORTALITY AMONG LAMBS

Chronicle (Levin), 9 October 1946, Page 5

MORTALITY AMONG LAMBS

SCIENTISTS MAKE TESTS Bv Telegraph— Press AsHiciation BLENHEIM, Oct. 8. That most ill-fated of all animals, the guinea pig, is once again being called on to risk its liido in the interests of science — on this oceasion in an etTort to solve the mvstery of a fatal disease which has broken out amongst new-: born lambs.on a Marlborough sheop station. It was about two weeks ago that a number of lambs becnme affected with a strange maladv wliich ended tlieir lives within 24 liours of their birth, and within a few days more than 1 Ot) of them had contracted the disease. The best eiforts of Government stock experts failed to provide the explanation, and since then a steadv loss has iieen oecurring. A batch of lialf a dozen guinea pigs were passengers on the Tamahine on its run across to Picton yesterday afternoon. They are to be taken to the property concerned, where they will be grazed on the area where the lamb losses are oecurring in an effort to detect the pf^sence in the pastures of anything of a toxie nature. H is probable that the success or otherwise of the experiment will not. be determined for about six weeks, which is the date of a number of expected linppy events in tlie guinea-pig colonv. If tlie newlv-born pigs sliow any 511 effects arrangements have been made for tlieni to be flown immediately to the Wallaceville experimental station, where they will be subjeeted to careful exami nation. Post-mortem cxaminations of carcasses of infectcd lambs have alreadv been carried out at the Wallaceville laboratories, and it is suspected that death may liave been caused by an infeetion of the unhealed navels of the lambs.