STERILITY IN COWS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 730, 1 August 1929, Page 10

STERILITY IN COWS

PROBLEM BEING STUDIED ANNOUNCEMENT BY MINISTER (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The problem of temporary sterility in cotvs is exercising the minds of the stock experts in the Agricultural Department, and experiments are being carried out over a wide area, according to a statement made in the House of Representatives this afternoon by the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. G. W. Forbes) in answer to an urgent question on the subject by Mr. W. J. Poison (Stratford). The Minister said that research work had been going on for over four years, and that the causes of the trouble were obscure. A variety of lines of research was being followed up, the work being carried out by the Wallaceville laboratory staff and selected field officers working in close co-operation. At the laboratory are Mr. C. S. M. Hopkirk (in charge), Mr. D. A. Gill and Mr. J. Hill-Motion. Mr. Gill has left for a trip abroad to gain new knowledge, especially with regard to dairy cows, and Mr. Hill-Motion recently arrived in New Zealand after having spent several months at the best laboratories and research institutes in Great Britain and on the Continent, where he paid special attention to dairy cow diseases. In the field are Messrs. C. V. Dayus, W. M. Webster and T. A. Blake. Mr. "Webster is working in North Taranaki; Mr. Dayus lias been four years in the Waikato, and now is on transfer to Otago; Mr. Blake, who already has done a lot of research into sterility, will succeed him in the Waikato. In addition to these men, the field veterinarians and stock inspectors of the department are carrying out observational and advisory work and apply experimental treatment. A field laboratory in a dairying district will be established this season. The department is not able to give farmers positive information as to the methods which can be relied on to prevent temporary sterility, but it gives the best assistance possible in the present state of the world’s knowledge of the trouble.