LAMB SICKNESS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 November 1936, Page 8 (Supplement)

LAMB SICKNESS

SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT.

Investigations by the Department of Agriculture have shown conclusively that cobalt supplements are completely effective both as a preventive and a cure in the control of lamb sickness at Morton Mains. Experiments have been made on lambs from unsound country at three stages of sickness; namely, before any signs of sickness developed, at the stage when lambs had stopped thriving but were not showing marked symptoms of sickness, and, third, when they were in extremis. In each case great improvements took place. In the first lot, which were on cobalt for I’B weeks, all the lambs at the esperiment were classed as fat, compared with only four in the control. In the second case the lambs started thriving again and rapid increases in weight took pl' ■ while in the third case good increases in i weight were also found, and the lambs, although small, became active again and were no longer likely to die. i Although cobalt supplements have I proved so effective in preventing and -curing lamb ailment in the present I investigation, the data available are not sufficient to make any pronounce- ■ merit concerning the role of cobalt, , or the existence of a cobalt deficiency in certain Southland pastures. IA number of samples of blood, liver, bone marrow, pancreas, and spleen have been taken from the experimen- • tai lambs, and it is hoped that an ! j examination of these specimens dur- ’ ing the next few months will help I I to make clearer the function of cobalt in lamb health.