DISEASE INFECTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1938, Page 3

DISEASE INFECTION

SPREAD BY WILD ANIMALS. EXPERIENCE IN RHODESIA. The possibility of wild animals playing a part in the spread of foot-and-mouth disease is referred to in the last annual report of the director of Veterinary Research for Southern Rhodesia. He says that evidence which he has clearly proves that some types of African game do contract the disease and can transmit it to domesticated stock. He expresses the opinion that, so far, little infection has been spread through this channel, otherwise it would never have been possible to control the disease in South Africa. Rhodesian experiments have demonstrated that previous infection does not immunise cattle against a recurrence of the disease during a subsequent outbreak. Animals inoculated with active virus 12 months after having had the disease gave 100 per cent reaction. Should we have the misfortune to have foot-and-mouth disease introduced to New Zealand, the large number of wild pigs, wild sheep and cattle and deer which can be found in the rough, mountainous country extending through both islands would be a serious factor in establishing effective control measures.