INFECTION OF HYDATIDS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 73, 18 December 1937, Page 16

INFECTION OF HYDATIDS

Means of Prevention The extent of the infection of hydatids in stock iu Hawke's Bay can be gauged from the fact that from 10 to 60 per cent. of the livers of lambs killed are put down tbe cbute as being unfit for hulnan consumption. A few. days ago, at an inqnest held in Wairoa on a girl 10 years of age, the medical evidence revealed the presence of consideruble hydatid growths. The death rate iu New Zealand is lo per cent. of affected cases. That the extent of the infection is high is shown by the faefc that the Governor-General, Lord Galway, saw fit to deal at length with it when opening Ihe Uoval Show at Palmerston NortJi. Hydatids in an infection of cysts which are formed in the organs such as the liver, the lungs, the brain or tlie mtestines. The liver is by lar the most eommon seat for the complaint. It is caused by a minute tape worm, one of the smallest known, in the dog. After being passed out of tlie dog they are eventually eaten by sheep oi' cattle and in various ways get into iiuman lieings. When swallowed • by one of the seeond hosts, such as sheep, the.y pass into the organs and in the course of time develop into large cysts. Means of prevention are very simple. These consist in the boiling of the whole of the sheep' s offal before being given to dogs. If this precaution wer® taken the infection could bp definitely stamped out in the course of a few years, and so add further safeguard to good health,