CATTLE DISEASE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 August 1928, Page 4

CATTLE DISEASE

DAIRY COWS AFFECTED. OUTBREAK IN NORTH ISLAND. WELLINGTON, Aug. 22. A mysterious disease that has puzzled fanners and veterinary surgeons is reported amongst the dairy herds of North Auckland and to a lesser extent in the Waikato. The malady appears in the cows about ten or twelve days after calving. The symptoms are akin to those of milk fever with the addition of severe attacks of shivers. Milk fever treatment lias not lieen of any avail, and death has followed very shortly after the manifestation. A suggestion that the animals have been affected with impaction is ruled out with the production of proof that the afflicted cows have lieen fed on a

variety of nutritious foods and have been grazed on clean pastures. Accurate statistics concerning the number of deaths which have taken place are not available, hut Mr W. Jones, member for Marsden, said today that ho had heard of fifteen cases of mortality in one small district. A most regrettable feature of the outbreak -was that some most valuable pedigree animals had become victims. Mr Jones asked the Minister for Agriculture (the Hon. Mr Hawken), as a matter of urgency in the House of Representatives to-day, if ho had heard of the disease, and as to what steps the officers ‘of the Department were taking to cope with it. The Minister said he had heard of it, hut lie was not in possession of any details. The experts of the Department were making 'full investigations. As soon as any information reached him I he would pass it on to Mr Jones. I