AUSTRALIAN BEEF

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10138, 16 January 1911, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN BEEF

CABLE NEWS

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.

CONTAINING PARISITIG NODULES. (Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.) LONDON, January 15. Reporting to the Local Government Board, Dr Robert Leiper declared that parasitic nodules, without exception, are due to the worms of the genus "ouchocerca." The diseased condition is not peculiar to Australian beef. It is found in other animals in various parts of the world, including the United States. The parasites belong to a group of worms that require to be taken up by a biting insect, and undergo a certain degree of development therein before they can be transmitted to another warm-blooded animal. They appear incapable of surviving more than a few liours after the death of cattle. There was no evidence of the vitality of the worm, or embryo, found in Australian TTeef here; Therefore the direct development of the parasite-in man, as a eating'affected meat-, was impossible.. The nodules-- are ; the product ; of T changes taking place in the tissue, and the result of some acrid toxin excreted by -the worms. Their presence in meat intended for human consumption was therefore undesirable, and the meat must be classed as unsound. The Morning Post publishes an interview with Major Sir S. B. Robinson, Agent-General for Queensland, and Captain Collins, Secretary to the High Commissioner, in which it is pointed out that effective steps are taken in Australia to repiove the briskets and flanks of the carcases before shipment.