FACIAL ECZEMA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1938, Page 9

FACIAL ECZEMA

COMPREHENSIVE RESEARCH WORK PLANNED MINISTER OUTLINES PROGRAMME FIELD EXPERIMENTS PROPOSED (By Telegraph —Press Association.) ROTORUA, June 22. The most comprehensive single investigation ever carried out in New Zealand into live stock diseases has been planned by the Department of Agriculture in connection with the recent outbreak of facial eczema, according to an announcement by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon W. Lee Martin, when officially opening the Rotorua winter show today. The Minister announced that the bulk of the work will be carried out at the Ruakura Experimental Farm, near Hamilton, but researches will also be undertaken at the Wallaceville Veterinary Laboratory and by the grasslands division of the Plant Research Bureau. The officer in charge of the investigation is Mr J. F. Filmer, veterinary research officer of the Department of Agriculture. The necessity for a long-term programme of investigation had been realised, Mr Martin said. For the purpose of planning this investigation a committee of management had been set up consisting of Mr Filmer, chairman; Dr Annett, Messrs Hayward and Anderson, farmers’ representatives; P. W. Smallfield, fields division, Department of Agriculture; R. E. R. Grimmett, chjef chemist, Department of Agriculture; and E. B. Levy, director of the grasslands division of the Plant Research Bureau. .SCOPE OF INQUIRY The committee was to direct the investigation, which it was estimated would’cost about £lO,OOO. The research work might be broadly classified under three headings:— 1. An extensive survey by veterinary and field officers of the department in the affected areas of the South Auckland district to obtain all possible information in connection with the outbreak. 2. Intensive field and laboratory work at Ruakura by veterinarians and chemists with supplementary work at Palmerston North. 3. Pathological work at the Wallaceville Veterinary Laboratory. “The programme has already commenced,” the Minister said. .“A full programme of chemical work, drawn up by Mr Grimmett, has been adopted by the committee of management. This investigation embraces three fields — animal tissues, pastures and soils. The work on animal tissues, such as the chemical changes in blood, bile, liver, etc., or the presence of unusual metabolic substances, will be undertaken by Mr S. W. Josland, of Wallaceville Laboratory, in collaboration with Mr Filmer, and they will have the resources of the chemistry section of the Department of Agriculture at their disposal. COMPOSITION OF PASTURES “The pasture work will include immediate investigations into the composition of pastures on which facial eczema is occurring and a comparison with unaffected pastures. This is particularly concerned with the search for plant metabolites of unusual nature, or present in unusual amounts, such as icterogenic substances, toxic amino acids or amides, chlorophyll, carotene, and other plant pigments, etc. “Mr Grimmett has reported that large quantities of non-protein nitrogen were found in some of the flush autumn growth by Dr Shortland and Mr Clare, and quantitative studies of relative percentages of protein and nonprotein nitrogen bodies are to be carried out on a general survey scale throughout the year on typical affected and non-affected pastures in continuation of the data already accumulated. Similar studies will also be carried out by officers of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Palmerston North. “The study of the fibre constituents of pastures (lignin, cellulose, hemicelluloses), pectins, sugars and other carbohydrates, will be undertaken at both Ruakura and Palmerston North by Dr R. J. Mcllroy, who has specialised in this work, taking his doctorate on the results of a similar investigation,” the Minister continued. “Researches into volatile oils, hydrocyonic and other acids and mineral elements have also been mapped out by Mr Grimmett. SOIL WORK “The soil work will be undertaken in conjunction with Dr L. I. Grange, and here again it is hoped to duplicate the work at Ruakura and Palmerston North. Officers of both the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research will be used for these surveys, and a committee under the chairmanship of Mr Grimmett will co-ordinate all chemical studies for which every available officer will be co-opted. “At Ruakura there are to be a number of field experiment. In the first place an endeavour will be made to reproduce the disease and toward this end trials are to cover the following points:—(a) Hard grazing in spring and summer, followed by grazing on fields flushed with irrigation; (b) hard grazing in spring and summer, followed by natural flush of grass stimulated with nitrogenous dressings in autumn; (c) hard grazing in winter, followed with nitrogen-stimulated grass in the spring; (d) dry feeding in winter followed with nitrogen-stimulated grass in the spring (repeat in autumn). FIELD CONDITIONS “On the prevention side, studies will be made under field conditions of: — (a) Sheep on paspalum the whole year: (b) sheep from hard grazing removed on to paspalum when flush occurs; (c) paspalum when pastures are dry and then on to autumn flush of feed; (d) sheep from hard grazing on to pastures shut up in December; (e) sheep from hard grazing on to pastures laxly grazed from November-De-cember; (f) sheep on irrigated pastures during dry weather: (g) sheep from

hard grazing on to autumn sown grasses; (h) sheep fed forage crops in late summer, and half kept on forages when flush of grass arrives and half moved on to flush grass; (i) sheep fed lucerne in late summer and half kept on lucerne when flush of grass arrives and half moved out on to flush grass; (j) sheep educated in hay and silage feeding during winter; to get silage in summer and hay when flush of grass comes. “Arrangements have also been made to conduct comprehensive experiments on a farm where outbreaks of facial eczema have been reported for several years past," Mr Martin said.