Animal Public Health. Review Of Past Year. Less Anxiety Caused

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 26 (Supplement)

Animal Public Health. Review Of Past Year. Less Anxiety Caused

"LAST year," said the director of the livestock division of the Department of Agriculture, Mr. W. C. Barry, "we had a less trying year than in the previous twelve months, although the dairy farmers had a difficult season in the spring and summer months. "Disease among livestock in New Zealand comes in a series of ups and downs," continued Mr. Barry. "Last year we had little or no facial eczema. That followed a hard spring and aummer. This year, with a good spring, milk-fever is troublesome in dairy herds, and to some extent among sheep. It has been something of a surprise that milk-fever in cows should havecaused any -unusual mortality, for the department hoped that with the full information it has made available regarding the symptoms and treatment of this disease, any well-managed dairy herd would be able to avoid losses caused by milk-fever." The control and elimination of disease in livestock requires much patience, continued Mr. Barry. It is very rarely that shock tactics can be applied, save perhaps when an epidemic occurs from well-known causes. That is particularly true of such diseases as contagious abortion, sterility, Johne's disease, and mastitis, all of them of considerable moment to the dairy industry.