DISEASES IN STOCK

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 15, 12 July 1911, Page 4

DISEASES IN STOCK

AND HOW THEY MAY BE CURED. The Taraivaki Agricultural Society experienced the usual wet weather last night when a meeting of members and farmers generally was called to hear a lecture on ''Prevention of Disease," by Mr. C. .1. lteake=. Chief Ooveriimcnt Veterinarian. Nevertheless, there was ji very fair attendance, and the president of the society, Mr. W. Ambury, presided, and introduced Mr. Reakes to the meeting. Mr. Rcalces, after some introductory remarks, said that (he prevention of disease was, to his mind, the most important thing of all. far better than curing animals that havo got sick. A great point was to build up the constitution; the stronger and healther an animal the better able it was to withstand disease. And the constitution should be built up whilst animals were young. Fn New Zealand we hadn't as many, diseases as were experienced in many other countries, and we could congratulate ourselves on being a very healthy country by comparison, so far as stock were concerned. All the more necessary to keep it/ healthy and to keep present disease under control. In constitution of rattle and pigs the great need was for an improvement in the feeding of the young stock. He often felt like giving some of the Taranaki farmers a ta.ste of the cruelty they 'meted out to their young stock, although, of course, tfiere had been a great improvement in recent years. Skim milk or whey was a poor food unless pasteurised to enable the stock to get the most out of it, but a good calf food should also be used. It was necessary to feed the animals cleanly—a neglected feature oil the farm. Troughs were very seldom cleaned, and the sour feed fouled the next food poured in, causing the calves to scour, to have indigestion, to get "pot-bellied," and so on. Those calves were to be the dairy cows of the future, and if they were neglected when young what sort of cows would thoy be and what sort would they produce? If nil calves had been properly fed there would be healthier stock and better milkers. Proper feeding of the pigs would have brought the pigs to profit earlier, .and made better pork. Pigs were even more neglected than c;iJves. Pigs were not dirty, as some people believed, and were more comfortable when decently housed. Cleanliness iu pig-raising would greatly improve the industry and the fanners' profits. He congratulated Taranaki people on (■lie great improvement in providing winter feed for cows. A few years ago very few farmers did this; now the majority did so. and the cows were better in consequence. There was a better appreciation <of the advantages of winter feeding.' Referring to feeding on mangolds and the reported losses of stock from this cause, he emphasised that mangolds should be pitted for two or three months. In that time the root became more digestible, more suitable as a food for stock, and more nutritious."

Coming to specific diseases, he said some of the more troublesome disease? could be prevented if proper care were taken. Contagious mammitis was difficult to deal with, because there was no satisfactory method of dealing with it, and this gave all the more cause for endeavoring to prevent its appearance. Contagious mammitis in its early stages might be overlooked, and in that state be conveyed to other cows in the herd. A suspected; cow should be isolated, milked by hand, and milked last. To test a mild case, the symptoms being a little thickening of the "teat or a little Jump at the top of it, or a hardening of the quarter, the suspected quarter should he milked into a glass, and if mammitis were present there would be a brown flaky deposit. He didn't consider farmers were careful enough when buying cows in the yard, paving too littlo attention to the udder, which should bo handled if possible and not judged on appearance. Each milker should make a point of passing the hand over the udder to ascertain its soundness, and this was particularly necessary in machine-milking, for thero the observation of the udder was not ordinarily as close as in the case of hand-milking. Having discovered an affected cow she should lie isolated, milked last, and ny hand.

Contagious abortion. Fortunately this was little known here now, though it had lieon common enough a few years ago. The improvement was due to the e-florts of the farmers themselves, prompted by the advice of his predecessor, Mr. .1. A. Oijruth. The inspector, Mr. Munro, had told him there was no contagious abortion here now. But every care must be taken. A cow which aborted from natural causes might be capable of causing abortion in other cows, and she should be treated just as a cow would be which was known to be suffering from contagious abortion. Where possible, a fire should be lighted over the aborted calf, so as to destroy not only the foetus bnt also all causes of infection. Tt had been discovered that cows became infected through the mouth, and great care should be taken to prevent the fouling of pastures by aborting cows. Y\ here a fire was impracticable, the ground should be saturated with strong non-poisonous sheep dip. and then turned over.

Inflammation of the womb. There was a good deal of this in the country at present, and he was of opinion that attacks of disease were responsible for cows not getting in calf afterwards. The disease generally appeared shortly after calving, ami in cows which had not properly cleaned. As soon as the cow had calved she should be properly syringed out, using a tablespoonful of lysol or other disinfectant in a couple of gallons of warm water. The same apparatus should be used as in the case of contagious abortion, and it should be used in every case where the cow did not calve easily or cleanse quickly. By .performing this simple operation the farmer might be saved a deal of subsequent trouble.

Blackleg.— H was very satisfactory to know that by the co-operation of the farmers themselves blackleg had been got under control, but. the inoculation must be continued.

Tuberculosis. —. Tf every dairy farmer took proper precautions there would bo very much less of this disease, which could not be got under control in a week or so. lint the disease was increasing, though not so rapidly J a at year as previously. This was to be expected in a newlv settled country, where stock had been' first imported so recently and where cattle was so closely slocked. Tuberculosis would have been worse but for the policy of supervision and weeding out of poor cows from the herds. Hut that was not enough. There were more "cattle year by year, and some further steps were necessary to get the 'disease under, or else it would get us uiuW in time. One step necessary was to sterilise skim milk and whey. It was of no use to kill out old cows and to keep on bringing up « race of tubercular calves. Experiments in complete pasteurisation had proved its value at' Glen Oroua, and the results of the experiments had already been published. Some hundred? of pigs had been treated. Very fe«' of those fed entirely on paisteur-

ised milk were .found to be infected. Other pigs, fed only part time on the pasteurised milk, showed a higher percentage of tuberculosis. The percentage was very mueh heavier in pigs fed wholly on impastemmed skim milk. H» also mentioned the ease, of a district, not in Xew Zealand, where pasteurisation had cheeked the disease; the cessation of this treatment gave it another fooling, and the resumption of pasteurisation brought about a healthy state of affairs again. The droppings. from liseased cows and pigs were capable ol transmitting tuberculosis to healthy Vigs. lie himself hud proved that thi'u paddock contamination was no theory but an actual fact, and that the infection was possible for mouths after the actual contamination, lie advised fanners to keep .pigs out of the cow paildocks. He was satisfied that pasteurisation of skim milk was going to be a big factor in eliminating this disease.

Pleurisy iu pigs—This was brought on as a result of bad management, due, to the pigs being kept under dirty eonm tions, in mud and filth, and provided with poor sleeping accommodation. Some of the pigstyes were fit only for saturating with kerosene, and burning; they were so saturated with filth that they would not burn without the kerosene. Farmers ought to know how much better it would be for them and for the pigs if they were decently housed. The disease left an unmistakable adhesion of the lung to the ribs, and tkia often caused : the carcases to be condemned. He strongly advised extra care of pigs after castration, stating that dirt and filth harbored diseases. Scour in calves.—Scour was due to ill feeding, and to worms in the stomach. These worms were very srftall ami diflieult to detect in a post mortem examination. lie explained to those present how to detect them. Calves so affected fouled the paddock, and other young stock lollop ing would be affected, too. The calves should in such case be put into the driest possible paddock, for the wotter the ground the longer the eggs of the worms retained their vitality.

Mr. Reakes concluded by inviting questions. To .Mr. Stanley : A calf affected with worms should he taken off the paddoc* in which it was running. It should have a dose of lysol in linseed oil—to a calf eight months old a teaspoonful of lysol in about a quarter of a pint of oil; subsequent doses four days afterwards in milk. The calf should be given dry nutritious food sprinkled with a common salt brine. Dry feed and no medicine would bo better than medicine and no dry feed.

To Mr. H. C. Sampson: Inflammation of the womb sometimes prevented com from getting in calf. It depended on the nature of the attack. To Mr. .T. Smith: A cow which aborted last year and was then thoroughly washed out should be washed out again a week or two afterwards before being stinted again. There should be no need for further irrigation, but washing of the outer parts was good. To Mr. S. T«ed: He couldn't give a calf-food formula off-hand, and even if ho gave one the farmer might not be able to get the ingredients. What waß wanted was an artificial food to replace what had been taken out of the milk. It was a question of how far the Government should trench on private enterprise.

To Mr. Sampson: .Feeding shark-oil wasn't the best way of replacing butterfat, and no oil mixed so readily with milk a.s to enable the farmer to be satisfied that the calf got his full share. Some farmers had found no other food necessary with .pasteurised milk.

To Mr. James: He had a very poor opinion of liny-tea. Calves which did well on it were doubtless doing well in apito of it and not because of it.

To Mr. A. W. Wood: If pigs wove kept under cleanly conditions, well housed, and well fed, they would not be liable to pleurisy. To Mr. W. Ambury: Sunlight would kill tuberculosis germs in a grass paddock where it got a chance. A goo.d method of cleaning such a field would be to run sheep and cattle alternately. Sheep did not take tuberculosis, and the absence of the cattle would enable the sun to get at it directly. To Mr. Stanley: Lime would be of very use in this wwr. To Mr. S. .1. Smith: Fresh-pulled mangolds fed to cows would likely have the effect of causing the cows to "go off" their milk.

Mr. Reakes hoped every farmer realised that, a herd could never tiecleared of contagious abortion unless the bull was thoroughly treated as well as the cows.

To Mr. Smellie: One tabloid to a whisky-bottle full of water was the strongest solution permissible, and the tabloid must be thoroughly dissolved. Any solid particles would cause inflammation. Serious damage might follow the use of a tinned bucket or kerosene tin for mixing the solution. To Mr. F. Cornwall: Cows suffering from slight indigestion would be dull, not feed very well, perhaps scouring, perhaps constipated. A "blown" cow was suffering from indigestion. A cow with acute indigestion would hump her back and 'look sorry for herself." She would not scour, might kick up against her body with her hind legs, and lose part of the use of her hind legs. Mr. Cornwall said that a very valuable old cow of his had not recovered from indigestion until lie had given her a quantity of hot stout, three tablespoonfuls of carbonate of soda, two of ginger, and some whisky. Mr. Re&kes said he couldn't feel sure which of these things had 'Mono the trick," hut probably it was the stimulant,

To Mr. Teed: Red water, as we had it in Xew Zealand, was generally found in cattle that turnips. A change to a grass paddock, with some good sweet hay, or chaff, bran, or aru&hed oats, was an effective cure. It' was purely a feeding malady. To Mr. Sampsont Nature often cured mammitis in its mild form.

Mr. >H. Okey moved a very hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Reafccs, and complimented him on the manner in wßfch he had handled a subject of such vital interest to the farming community. He congratulated the Department on the success of its crusade against blackleg. This was seconded by Mr. Stanley Smith, and carried by acclamation.