TUBERCULOSIS IN TAS MANIA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1137, 15 February 1884, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS IN TAS MANIA.

In connection with the visit of Mr A.. Willows to Tasmania to collect information oh the subject of tuberculosis in rabbi s for the Government of New' Sou r h Wales, the Launceston Examiner of the 17th inat Bays: “Mr Willows, accompanied by Mr Pak. veterinary surgeoi) in. Hobart, recently visited Etlenthrope and spent several days there collecting rabbi s and examining ahe floks. Mr Willows, ascertained that the disease was suspected to-he a' new form of fluke, which He however found was not the cas-i. .It mute its first appearance some four years ago,and was the nonly noticed ot an area of 10 to 15 acres, since which time'it has spread to an area of 200 acres Of its virulence there.c.-m be no question, since, unailed, it has grappled with the rabbit pest single-handed and .prevented its soread most thprough ! y. The di-ea»e has also mad**.its. appearance at ■ Mona Val« and at Uoss, which is proof positive that it is spreading During Mr Willows’sftiy he has shot and killed by dogs no less than 60 rabbits, 87 of which, or about 75 per cent, proved, on post mcriem examination, to suffer from tuberculosis. Young rabbits not more than five we*ks ol I, were found to be in the last stage of the disease, which proves that the disease was inherited, and not contracted after birth. This fact is of great importance, as it tends to show that the rabbit s are ikely to degenerate and breed a short-lived race. One peculiarity of the disease at Etlenthrope is that ihe tubercles are found only in the liver, th if usual location being lungs and kidnevs The disease at Ellenthorpe is less destructive thin elsewhere, being of a more subacute form., and tnrough being associated with the liver only is of a less malignant type. Mr Willows also made a careful examination of :tbo sheep, but did not.find a trace of tuberculosis in them, neither has it been noticed by the man who has been felling sheep on the estate for several years. The result thus far would go to show that this form of tuberculosis at least is fatal to rabbits, a«(t it is not transmissible from them to sheep,"