Mortality Amongst Sheep.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 226, 30 January 1894, Page 2

Mortality Amongst Sheep.

No. 10 of the " leaflets for Farmers will be ready for issue to-day by the Department of Agriculture. As we have already mentioned, it consists of the interim report of Mr J. A. Gilruth, Government Veterinarian, on " BloodPoisoning in Lambs after Cutting and Tailing." Mr Gilruth states that last spring he was requested to investigate this disease, " which is," he says, " and has in former years, beeu the cause of considerable mortality amongst lambs in the districts af Balclutha and Wyndbam, in Otago. In some cases I found the number of deaths as high as 10 to 12 per cent." As the result of his investigation he finds that generally the first thing that draws the owner's attention seriously to the condition of his flock is the discovery, in from 36 to 48 hours after operating, of a few dead lambs lying in various parts of the paddocks. Next morning he finds a few more, and so on for three or four days, when as a rule the mortality ceases. The cause of the disease is a micro-organism, which gains entrance to the blood by the open wound, and the microbe comes either from a dirty yard or ill-drained land. Mr Gilruth recommends thescrupulous cleanliness of yards and the draining of paddocks, coupled if possible with a surface dressing of lime. Even a ditch through the centre of boggy paddocks would improve them a little.