SOME SHEEP COMPLAINTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 795, 19 April 1910, Page 8

SOME SHEEP COMPLAINTS.

' /; ECZEMA AND BOT. ... -. Outbreaks of disease among sheep have occurred in the past summer in Auckland, Taranaki, and Poverty Bay. In the two first-mentioned provinces facial eczema has been the' mam trouble; and in Poverty Bay there appears from the newspaper reports to havo been both facial eczema and nasal bot. Nasal bot we have always with-us to a certain extent, and cases of- if get into tho newspapers in the:.big gooseberry season. This year, however, , there has been an unusually serious outbreak among the flocks at Pouawa, up ■ the Jiast Coast, north of Uisbprne. According to a paragraph .published the. other day five-per cent, of the flocks are'still affected. The season has been an , exceedingly, favourable one for insects. Caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, ■'turnip • flies, and sheep botflies havo nourished amazingly.' Thus has come the nasal hot trouble. , The ov.er-plenfiful supply, of feed in many holdings' has'similarly been responsible for : the . various.' 1 outbreaks- of facial eczema. .... Tho digestive-. systems, of the sheep havo been upset, and this'has had an effect.on the circulation of:the blood riot yet. well uider,stood and expressed by' an' eciematous ■ condition of the most exposed , partsvof the skin. The ears, nostrils,' and eyelids become slightly congested and intensely' irritable. , In some cases sheep have been found suffering from both facial eczema and nasal bot at one.' and tho,-same ,; time, and .the irritation; to .naturally be intense.-.There 'js.jyhowever,..no connection .between' ! the-two'- complaints, except that the season, has been favourable to the development of-both.:-The-habits of sheep bot aro decidedly irregular :in New Zealand,, and though the, maggot J.i's commonly to be .found moving into its', winter quarters.' in /its host's head,about March or. April, it has been observed in different Btages.-of. development-' at all .times of-the; year;.: .With/ regarAVto: facial eczema it. is,- nnderstoody.tliat. further in-vestigations"!.into'.'_the/-n'ature:-'of. this disease "'are : n6w being , .•ma'de ,b/tthe Department ;6f ?Agriculture. Descriptions of both-complaints,(,/have.';.-.-previously been published- in Tpß DoiiNioN.' .