GREEN WOOL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 393, 30 November 1932, Page 2

GREEN WOOL

INFECTION OF PIGMENT CHANGES WOOL'S COLOUR. SEVERAL SHADES POSSIBLE. It is possible for wool to display all the patriotic colours, red, white and blue, and oth'ei;s as well. This was made clear in a report received by Mr. J. D. Anderson, stock inspector at Gisborne, from the Wallaceville laboratory. Mr. Anderson received a sample of green wool taken from a hogget on one of the district stations, and he dispatched this to the laboratory for a report, which States: "The green cplour is due to infection of the wool with a green pigmentproducing organism called pseudomonas procyaneus. This organism can produce a variety of colours varying from reddish to blue, but generally seems to produce the green tint in infected wool. "It generally occurs under conditions of damp, muggy weather, or rather, such conditions are responsible for giving the organism its footing in the wool. It occurs in Australia in, a condition known as "water rot," and we have met with a number of cases in this country also. The green tinge in the wool is not taken out by any of the usual commercial wool scouring processes. "Affected wool generally has an unpleasant smell and is very attractive to blowflies. Affected sheep should be sorted out, the affected wool shorn off and burnt. The animals sh'ould then be dipped. The organism is not very resistant and dipping in one of the carbolic dips should kill it, provided the animal gets a thorough soaking, but the affected sheep should be shorn off first as organisms in the green-stained wool may be partially bedded in the fibres and so protected from the dip's action."