CONTAGIOUS ABORTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1920, Page 8

CONTAGIOUS ABORTION.

ERADICATING THE DISEASE During his address at Bell Bleek on, Monday evening the Director of the live Stock Division of the Agricultural Department touched on contagious abortion. This troublesome and well-known disease has, he stated, caused in this 1 Dominion, as in other affected countries, an enormous loss, but whilst here it does not by any meanß appear likely to become so great a scourge as in some other countries. The position here is serious enough to warrant us in considering every possible means likely to bring about its eradication, and there is no doubt that the sanitary methods adopted by farmers in the past have been the means of keeping it considerably in check. This disease has been the subject of research work in different up-to-date laboratories all over the world, and our knowledge of the disease is slowly hut surely advancing in a direction likely to lead to the ultimate eradication of the disease. It has been suggested by farmers' unions and others that legislation should be introduced to restrict the sale cjf cows which have recently aborted, but in this great difficulties present themselves. In the first place an animal may abort without the aid of the contagious germ. The majority of cows suffering from , contagious abortion .abort in from two to seven months after conception, yet it has been pointed out that many cows carry their calves tie full period, although they are harbouring the contagious germ, and still are capable of spreading the disease to other animals. You will see, therefore, that if legislation in this direction were hastily adopted many great difficulties would spring up and hardships occur, as at the present time it would practically mean tha/t no one could sell a cow without first having a small quantity of her blood examined by a bacteriologist, and as this process is a somewhat complicated one, much delay might occur and no action can be taken against anyone for exposing for sale any animal suspected of this disease without this test being applied. A simple way out of this difficulty would be to frame an Act to read "Any cow which has aborted within the gestation period," the objection to this being that it would include all abortions and yet not absolutely prevent the sale of some animals j as already stated suffering from' the germ of contagious disease. Many valuable additions to bur knowledge concerning this disease have been made within recent years. It can now be fairly accurately determined by the bacI teriological examination of the blood of I :y.\ an:;aal ■•vfoO.'jr it c, harbouring the | germ of this disease or not. It has also i been determined that the contagious \ jfirm is in !,frt!.-.-];•.; .(.hat is, when the | animal is pregnant the germs are to be j found inhabiting the generative organs, J and when non-pregnant they are almost j exclusively found in the udder adjacent to ! the lymphatic glands. Further than this, there are indications that at no great future date a perfect system of vaccination or inoculation will ho found which can be practically applied in this country, but at the present time this form of prevention is not out of the- experimental stage so far as to he of practical value in this Dominion. Here the conditions of housing and milking are totally different from those of Great Britain where the tests have been applied and a certain degree of success claimed. These, however, require careful analysis as to their results, as it is a well-known fact that in some herds contagious abortion disappears to a considerable extent without any treatment whatever, and had it been so tested no doubt the favourable results would have been placed to the credit of inoculation. Moreover, these experiments at every laboratory iare being carefully watched and tested at' <jur own, consideration always being given to the practical side of the quest'on. Another idea recently advocated and apparently with success, is that of immunity. Large stock owners recognising that any treatment whatever was almost wholly outside the spheres of practical application, went to the other extreme and decided to keep all abort- ; in<* cows together and breed from them, only introducing new blood when absolutely necessary. They claim that by doing this they have considerably reduced their losses from contagious abortion, as the animals appear to .become immune to the disease. These remarks bring up the present question as to what ; is best to he clone pending the adoption of new methods, and it can be gathered from the information already acquired that the only time in which the washing I out of the genitive organs of cows is of I any effect is immediately after calving, 1 ,nwl every effort at cleanliness and snni{*>fion should be adopted so that the contagious germ should he reduced as -far as possible. After impregnation theusunl sanitary conditions as to the external parts should be continued as i formerly advised.