DEATH TO SHEEP.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 281, 1 October 1889, Page 2

DEATH TO SHEEP.

Mr Wilson, the Manager of the Moutoa estate has just brought to our notice the existence of a maggot which has been the means of the death of a great many of his Lincoln ewes. We have noticed thai in other places settlers have complained of fair conditioned healthy sheep lying down and dying for no apparent reason. The cause of this evil is the maggot produced for our inspection, which is about 1& of an, inch in 1 ngth and -]- inch in breadth, and it bears very much the appearance of the Aphis blight as that insect is seen under a microscope. We have no hesitation iv asserting it to bo the Bot, which is well known as a trouble to the sheep in the old country. The grub is the larvae of the Gadfly of the sheep, and in thfr spring months irritate the v by determined attempts to lay their eggs in the inner margin of the nose. By warmth and moisture these are almost immediately hatch d, and the maggots crawl up the nose, and tracing their circuitous course through an aperture under the turbinated bone into the maxilary sinus, they sometimes lodge there. They are occasionally found in every cavity wi h which the notes communicat s It i emains there to the end of spring feeding on the mucus secreted by this membrane. When they have attained their full growth they seek to escape and cause the sheep much annoyance, and when they do not succeed in escaping they appear to kill the sheep by pressing upon the brain sac, and the sheep lay down and die without a struggla. It is asserted that woody countries, and the neighbourhood of copses are most probable places for these flies to be found, and that there is no remedy except for the shepherd to rec guise the fly and destroy as many as he can. The insect may be seen at our office.