SCAB IN SHEEP. From a correspondent of the Launceston Examiner.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 279, 1 April 1848, Page 3

SCAB IN SHEEP. From a correspondent of the Launceston Examiner.

Among the diseases of the skin in sheep s>rab stands first in place, both in frequency of occurrence, and injury to the woo', flesh, .and general constitution of the animal. The same disease, or one very similar, has been known for many centuries back. It assumes different forms in different seasons and in different animals, as there are several kinds of it. The scab in sheep is much like the mange in other animals ; it is most prevalent in the mouths ot May^ June, and July, and early part of the spring. It may be occasioued by a great number of causes, such as scanty pasture, mismanagement, over driving, keeping she£p long in yards, dogging, &c, and exposure afterwards to wet aud cold weathor. Sheep having the scab are very uneasy and restless, scratching themselves with their feet, &c, and nibbling and tearing off their wool with their teeth, or rubbing themselves against any projecting place. When minutely examined at first, the skin will be found rough aud discoloured : and in a few days afterwards there will be an extensive eruption, and numerous pustules, which, when broken and run together, will form a crust or scab, under which there is a sore if the crust is removed. The shoulders aud back most commonly first exhibit these pustules. The customary health of the sheep is affected according to the extent or virulence of the disease ; sometimes it loses condition and pines away from continual irritation and suffering. It is a very contagious disease : if it once gets iuto a flock the flockmaster may depend upon it that unless the affected sheep is immediately removed the whole of the flock will become infected, and the loss will be very considerable. According to my experience, the scab seems to spread among the sheep not so much by rubbing against infected places ; for I have seen it happen when sheep farmers have got nd of a scabby flock and covered their runs with a new oue, that the disease has broken out again and has been as troublesome and as virulent as before, and this has arisen from the run not having been long enough depastured, or rubbing places not having been removed or painted. But as it is not a physiological inquiry that is required, I refrain from making any more remarks on the nature of the disease that being already known to all flock-masters; nor will I hazard an opinion on the prevention of scab (having no practical experience in this couutry regarding it) further than stating the universal impression in districts where sheep are free from scab, which is, to keep the sheep when once cleaned from coming in contact with any infected sheep, or allowing the sheep to depasture where infected sheep have lately been : I know of no other preventive.

As I have already adverted to the necessity of the ground being free from infection for the prevention of the disease, it must be held as preliminary to the process of curing the disease to have clean ground to turn the sheep upon when dressed ; and it occurs to me that such an essential requirement will be attended with very much difficulty, and in some cases be almost impossible in Van Diemen's Land, from the circumstance of most of the sheep farms being fully stocked, and there being little or no clean ground to turn the sheep upon when dressed. In the case, however, of those who have summer runs, that is, those who remove their sheep to the lakes or other rented crown lands, these parties may very well accomplish the cure by entering upon the dressing of the sheep immediately after shearing them, and sending them directly away to the ground that has not been stocked dnring the winter months. In this again a difficulty presents itself ; for unless the system of curing were almost universally adopted, and every flockmaster entered eagerly into the necessity of getting rid of the disease, what would be the use of a few making the attempt? For however well they may succeed in cleaning their own flocks, the disease would inevitably return upon the sheep coming in contact with any neighbouring sheep that were diseased. And I believe, and in ray experience have seen, that sheep will catch the infection from travelling over ground where scabby sheep had been depasturing ; indeed, so fully is this opinion entertained at Port Phillip, &c, that it has caused the govern-ment-to pass an Act, imposing heavy penalties for driving sheep infected by scab ; from which may be inferred the difficulty that presents itself unless the system of curing the disease were universally adopted. I may add another opposing circumstance ; in most cases the estates in Van Diemen's Land have not fences sufficiently good to prevent the ingress or egress from the accustomed runs, hence the danger from neighbouring sheep being infected. It now remains for me to point out the different n.odes of cure in general practice. The washes are generally infusions of tobacco, hellebore, French fox glove, arsenic, and corrosive sublimate, with many other applications. Such as sulphur, turpentine, &c. When the disease is not far advanced, an infusion of tobacco to six or seven gallons of water or urine, with a few young shoots of broom added, is very useful, and -I have seen its good effect in curing the scab. Another and more effectual method is the application of a mercurial oiutraejr.it.-* The ointment should be made of two degrees of strength, that for bad cases should consist of common mercurial ointment, rubbed down with three times its weight of lard. The other, for ordinary cases, should contain five parts of lard to one of mercurial ointment. A shred or furrow should be made from the head to the tail, and in such a manner that the skin is exposed, a little of the ointment should then be applied with the finger to the skin along the whole of the exposed surface, and so on about four inches apart* and well rubbed in. The quantity of ointment applied to each sheep may vary from a few drachms to two ounces, one-third of the quantity being used for a lamb. Another cure for the scab, and a good one, is four ounces of arsenic to six gallons of tobacco water. To dissolve the arsenic, put into a pan a little water with six ounces of soap, let the water boil until the soap is dissolved, then add four ounces of arsenic, let it boil for 15 or 20 minutes, then put it into six gallons of tobacco water. The Port Phillip cure for scab is as follows :—lt: — It is necessary to have the sheep very closely shorn, so that the person who scarifies may easily discover an infected spot. The sheep after being shorn are laid on a table and minutely examined, every spot where the disease is visible is of course scarified. I may here state that the scarifying is performed either by a knife or scarifier (the latter is generally made from a piece of an old iron saw, about 2\ ox 3 inches square, with teeth cut on the two sides of it, and is preferable to the knife, as the most skilful operator will occasionally cut too deep from any sudden movement of the sheep when using the knife, but which will seldom occur when using the scarifier). It is necessary .even when there is no appearance of the disease to scarify the sheep from head to tail, on the shoulders and sides, as well as on the breast, and slightly between the thighs, after which, the sheep are put into a large tub, or as is frequently used, a bullock hide containing the prepared liquid, and there remain for a short time, care being taken that every part of the sheep be immersed. The sheep is then laid upon a table, which should stand at such an angle as to allow of the liquor from the sheep running into the dipping tub. The person who operates as scarifier then brushes the sheep over with a good hard scrubbing brush, which is preferable to using the hands. The sheep are then put under cover, and kept there until the next morning; the sheep should then at once be driven to si clean run. Sometimes the sheep undergo a

second dipping, which, in ordinary cases, completes the cure. Such is the process in practice at Port Phillip, and it now only remains for me to state the different receipts in general use there, all of which will produce the desired effect, if judiciously administered. ' A very general application is one ouuce of corrosive sublimate to a gallon of water. The corrosive sublimate is easily dissolved in about double its quantity of salt ; but many of the sheep will die from this cure. The next in general use is, one ounce of arsenic to every gallon of water; it is a powerful cure and held in high esteem in the Sydney district. This cure will also be attended with many deaths. The last which I shall notice is the most approved; the ingredients are vitriol, blue stone, and strong tobacco ; very few deaths occur from this cure. The same treatment of the sheep is applicable to all the different receipts. I may conclude with stating my conviction, that unless fencing of a very perfect kind were universally adopted, and an Act of the Legislature passed similar to what regulates other colonies, the extirpation of the disease will be almost impossible.