The Daily News. TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20. A GRAVE CHARGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8051, 20 February 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20. A GRAVE CHARGE.

The strong stand taken by tlic Tar, naki Executive of the Fanners' Unio. with respect to the excessive losse from blackleg, subsequent to the iuocu lation of ea'vcs by Government officer shows that the farmers are nm thoroughly aroused to a realisation of danger which was pointed out by u some weeks ago. The farmers alleg that the excessive mortality is due I the Stoek Department using vaeein which is too strong, the inoculatioi thereby becoming, instead of a preven tativc, a source of spreading thediseas which it was designed to suppress This is undoubtedly a very seriou charge, but is one which, ncvcrtheles.' we are almost constrained to endorse in the light of the information at ou disposal. Prior to this season, ther had been no marked mortality amongs herds after inoculation. What tli farmers want to know is, why ther should be such an alarming morlalit, amongst herds this season, after the; have been inoculated by Governmcn experts. The officers of the Depart ineut have assigned various reason; and contributing causes, practical! none of which, to our mind, arc satis factory. Followed to their logical con elusion, the allegations of the farmer are that the lymph, which the Depart nient is manufacturing, is faulty Judged by results, there is uudoubtedl; justification for the allegation. Oi the showing of one of the Department' officers, as stated to a "News "inter viewer on Saturday, the lnelhod o inoculation is, without question, alsi defective, as we shall demonstrate late on. So long as ouly blacklcj tabloids were used for injections there was unanimity amongst farmer tial the inoculation treatment was success. The reason is obvious. Thes tabloids were manufactured by one u the leading manufacturing chemists i the world, and by their use it was im possible to give either more or les than the correct dose of vaccine. I was considered that this method, lion ever, was uol expeditious enough, a the operator had to charge the syring with afresh tabloid after each injection The method now in vogue appeirs l< be that a syringe capable of holdiiij several doses of fluid vaccine—which i manufactured at the Departments Laboratories—is used, the animal thereby being treated very expediti ously. From experience, however, thi method has been proved open to ser ous objection. In the first place th veterinary laboratories necessari!; suffer by comparison with the grea scientific institutions of the Xoi't'ien Hemisphere, equipped with ever facility known to .science. It h therefore, not to be wondered at Iha occasional batches of locally nnnufac lured lymph should go wrong. In thi: ■onneetiou we have learned on tin rery highest authority tint at leas me lot of this vaccine was found to b putrid, unfortunately, however, no intil after it hid gone into commission Experience has shown that vaccines Tom even laboratories of repute, some lines unaccountably turn out bai nit doctors and velori'iari ins can, hj; Dialysis, speedily determine whether o nit such is the case. Unfortunate),! nuch of ''he blackle,' inoculation i icrformed by Stock Inspectors, win lave not the necessary seientili.' know edge to enable them to tell whethe he lymph they are using i icaltliy or otherwise. The method o iioculation seems to be seriously a null, as on the admission of the velcrl .ariaus, it is impossible to alway egulate the dose. This is a mos amagiug admission, for the vaeein 'eing a poison, it is as essential (ha he exact quantity should be injected s that healthy vaccine should bi iscd. If the syringes used hi he Department are at faul n this respect, their use should be iin nedialely discontinued. There seem o be a further serious Haw in the pre .•ess of iuiioculating. So fur as w know, the practice is to thorough), demise the instruments in use by boi' iug them at least once a day. Thi lei'ius altogether inadequate a prolec ion against the danger of contagion if one of the animals treated is sulTei ug from blackleg, it is reasonable f suppose that the needle of the syriugi ivill become contaminated. It I •qually reasonable to assert that if Oi syringe is immediately afterwards usei m a healthy animal, the blackle] jacteria will be introduced direct!, into its system. Unless the instru incuts are sterilised after every injec lion, immunity from contact cannot b guaranteed. The lo3s of time involve! ivould be infinitesimal compared wit) the value at slake, and as an argumeu in favor of an inefficient system canno be tolerated. It is in no way our in lentiou to condemn the action of th Government regarding inuoculatioi: It is universally recognised throughou Taranaki that prompt and effectiv action by the Government averted serious outbreak of blackleg at the out set. Also the policy of the departuieii in establishing its own manufacturin laboratories was a commendable om The unfortunate circumstance is tha public conlidenec in the vaeein maimfaclm-cd in the laboratorie has been considerably shaker If it is true, as previously slated, thu one lot of vaccine was known to hav gone bad, it should be admitted, an. assurance given that steps have bee taken to prevent a recurrence. 1 that assurance cannot lie given the us of the locally manufactured \aceiii must lie discontinued and recourse liu to the imported "blacklegoi'ds" thn heretofore have given every satisl'ai lion. All things considered, it cci tainly appears that the tabloids ar superior to the liquid vaccine both i safety and effectiveness, although pel haps the innoeiilation witli the tabloid may take a little longer. Greate care must also be taken in providiu against transmitting the disease, an the instruments should lie sterilise

after every operation. Further, none but ipialilicd veterinarians should be employed doing tke inoculating, especially if |ho Department eonlimios using liipiiil vaccine of its own miinufnctiiri'. There still remains much to lie written on this important nutter, hut enough lias licLMi said here to show lh;it llic Fanners' Union jirc justified in referring llic mailer to the Minister for Agriculture for immediate at tendon, Lit is !,,!.,■ Imped that a delinitu mid. honest statement limy lie forthcoming] us lo tlie real euuse of the mortality, in order that united aetion may be taken I

I to overcome it. The ijuestion of compensating farmers for their losses is one of which much will be heard 'n the near future, but space, prevents further reference to this aspect of the ijuestion at present.