HEAVY LOSSES

Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1929, Page 7

HEAVY LOSSES

SHEEP MORTALITY IX NEW ZEALAND.

SOME ALARMING FIGURES

JIASTHIiTON. June 2(1

Surprising and alarming figures dealing with sheep mortality through parasitii- infection .were given by Air L. T. Daniell, of Alnsterton, when addressing the Mastcrton Rotary Club to-day. Taking a ten-year period, the speaker estimated that’in that time 21 million slice]) had died 4 of preventiblo disease, an average of over two million per year. Air Daniell contended that the affliction was not only centur.v-old but also world wide, and suggested that a suitable committee should be sec up to make a serious study of the question in the hope that a cure might ultimately ho discovered.

“In this land of huge 'freezing work's it is generally taken for granted that the normal end of a sheep is in the butcher’s shop or the freezing works.” Air Daniell said. “It is surprising to find that out of 28 million sheep in the Dominion at least two million die annually from preventiblo disease. So far the ablest of our scientists have failed to .find a complete remedy for internal parasite infestation off sheep.”

The Dominion, he said, was famed for its production of lamb, mutton, and wool, and to maintain the quantity standard of production our pastures were grazed heavily and continuously. Grown sheep suffered little from intensive grazing, hut hoggets were susceptible to parasitic infesta-

tion. Autumn and carlv winter conditions were most favourable to parasites and during the last two or three months the death rate had been at least 50,000 a week. Tiie methods of collecting pastoral statistics were confused and haphazard, Mr Daniell observed, and it was not easy to compute a national stock without allowing if or a margin of error; but by taking a ten-vear period it would be found that, in that time, about 21 million sheep were accounted for, an average of over two million each year.'' Of these, over 600,001) were owes and at least a million were hoggets. This regrettable drain on the economic life of the Dominion occurred year after year; surely it was high time that the l)Qst brains of the country were organised to assist the farmers in what at present was a losing fight.

IT would probably be. urged that the incidence of the disease had followed the recent increase in top-dressing of pastures. The experience, of older countries, such as England and Wales, went to show that extensive losses were all too frequent last century. One witness at an official inquiry in 1833 Imd said: “We expect generally to get a rot every six or seven years.” Another had estimated that in the period 1828-31 over eight million sheep were lost out of a total of 32 million. Heavy losses had also been suffered in the ’eighties. Jn 1914 a well-known Wairarapa sheep farmer, travelling in the Argentine, mentioned that in some seasons he lost as much as 30 per cent of his hoggets. A friendly ranchcro, who had also suffered, gave him a prescription, which since had been used most effectively, the losses of the particular farmer to-day being only 3 or 4 per cent. These facts, Mr Dairell said, went to show that the trouble was not only century old, but also world wide.'

Illustrating the extent of what he termed “local still life studies,” Mr Daniell stated that one station with MOO hoggets had lost 400, and might yet lose more; another had separated 300 nf the culls and lost 250 of them, while a stud breeder had lost 13 out of 20 valuable hoggets, and another had lost 20 out of 40. When it was remembered that the skin of a dead hogget yielded only a shilling or two, against the live hogget worth of a pound or two in the spring, the enormous wastage became apparent. PARASITIC GASTRITIS. The general term to cover the epidemic was parasitic gastritis, the speaker continued, and the annual visitation was so consistent that it would

bi: -.ii.se to assume that the disease was always present and to develop economic methods of prevention and cure. The chief symptoms were coughing and diarrhoea, leading to anaemic condition and loss of appetite, the animal gradually sinking into a coma. When it was remembered that every sheep in the Dominion produced about £T per year, the financial stake involved could he appreciated. Losses by disease, moreover, affected more than the year in which they occurred, as it necessarily took time for the numbers to he restored. Further, farmers might he left either short of capital and unable to replace their stock or unwilling to do so until they were sure the “epidemic” was over. It should also be remembered that those Ir.'ggets which survived suffered so severely that in many instances their coustiutions were undermined, and fanners were thus breeding from cull stock—and ibis feature wiis perhaps the worst, for its effects could be noted in the lack of fecundity of the younger breeding ewes. A station nowadays carrying 10,000 breeding ewes that used to get over 100 per cent, could roly on something over 80 per cent., and the 2000 lambs that did not materialise were not only a loss to the individual but also a loss to the Dominion. REMEDIES. Dealing with direct remedies, Air Daniell said it would have been noted that Alassey College had recently appeared with an injunction to use bluestone and starvation. In the Wairarapa area, at any rate, bluestone had been found useless in stemming the disease. It was understood, he said, .that Alassey College bad bad trouble with Their hoggets, but though bluestone might have helped .them, it was becoming plain that more thorough investigation was becoming essential, for the worst of the epidemic was over by July, the fittest surviving then.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. In,addition to the institution already mentioned, it was possible that the Agricultural Department, the Scientific Research Board and the Meat Board might he interested, and there should be ample personnel and money available. One hundred years ago Parliamentary committees were selected to discuss the extensive losses, and in these scientific days it should be possible to mobilise for such a great purpose some earnest and observant seekers alter truth, with a team spirit to carry them towards, their goal. A suitable committee, Mr Daniell suggested, would consist r.lf, say, a veterinarian for post mortems and investigation of the cause of deaths, a dietist, to examine and prescribe food constituents, an ngristologist to examine pastures and prescrioe most nutritious and palatable feeding grounds for young sheep, hill or flat. The Dominion had some s’denclid material available for each of these posts, but they must be brought together to work as a unit, freed 'from all the jealousies that seemed' to corrode pioneering and research work the world over. Their motto should he “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

ST AT I STIC A L R ETURNS. It was possible that the figures given 1)V him might he challenged, Mr Daniell said. They had been the result of careful working out of the Abstract of Pastoral Statistics. This work, ho contended, would he simpler if the present methods were reformed. In Queensland stock returns took the form of a simple balance-sheet, the numhei olf stock at the last return being shown each year, the natural increase added, and the owner asked to account for -..cm. This would bring home each' year, the huge losses sustained. Simple and efficient Plunket methods, something on Plunket lines, should then ho called for as the extensive mortality amongst the hoggots became clearer. The trained scientist or medir..,| ioau who turned all his attention to this problem and helped the producers to overcome the present alarming death-rate would not only be a great public benefactor, but also become through every country in the world as widely lcnowu ns Sir Truby King yas in his particular sphere.