MOUSE PLAGUE.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1917, Page 8

MOUSE PLAGUE.

j - RODEXTS DYING FROM DISEASE | IX VICTORIA. ! . HUMAN BEINGS INFECTED. i I • The Melbourne Age states that the i contention that diseases, particularly | skin diseases, are being propagated j among human beings and animals by j mice in last developing from a suspicion into a. certainty. .slice in thousands are I dying in the country from disease, and I in these places where the mouse plague I started early there are indications that ! the ravages of disease may end in ex- ; terminating the rodents. The present mouse plague in Victoria is said to I have in in Jirst reported from Minyip, and in that district to-day there is un- | mistakable evidence that the mice are j sud'oring from contagious diseases which . j arc ratal to mice, and are communicable f to human being's and farm stock, in I which, furlunatciy. they take a less serious form. Those diseased are exactly similar to those which occurred in conjunction with the mouse plague of Ij lillifj, and which were the principal facI tors in eradicating the scourge. It was . j then found that mice, by living in fodd»r badly contaminated it, and turned it into a Mutable medium for the growth of germ life. This contaminated fodder, I when fed to animals, led to a eonsiderI r.ble mortality, e.-pccially among horses. I I'ersrns who handled the contaminated j! fodder were also infected. The mice jj wen- frequently found deed with a disj j ease which known to pathologists a:> j i favns. In nunu'ivns instances their |; heads were partly eroded away, their i , tails missing, and they bad ulcerating J' patchei all over the surface of the j! bed v. The infected mice almost in- \ \ varibly died, but the majority of cases ■ ' in human subjects were mild, and yielde<l readily to proper treatment. In addition to favus, the mice now tt in .Minyip district are said to pe affect - I cd with itit.n~e M'pti.raemia, spinal meii- ; and cerebro-spinal meningitis. In connection .with these diseases emomr mice Mr .I,;ims Hiiri'e<. a local - vet-rimtry .urgeon, ha- carried out sonic i| c\t-n-dve investit'iitions, and has conjj \inced himself that they are prevalent ' am ng mice throughout the district. i He has noted a considerable amount I of s!.in disen-c among farm workers and I children. The disease generally starts ' j with a sm ill patch of eruption. j characteristic of favus, and when treated \ j with tincture of iodine generally quickly 1 i di-apnears. Some men who have been \ I infected have aggravated the trouble by : ! using lc-ol In hasten the curative pro- : ■ cess.' Tiie result has been that the skin I : has been burned, and the broken skin j ! iuii'ta,,. lias rapidlv become infected with i ! other contaminating germ life. Mr ■ | Harncs has k!?o reached the comforting - ' .conclusion that, mainly as a result of ! the diseases mentioned, and of the trapping devices which have been installed, the mouse plague is rapidly disappearing from the .district.