DISTEMPER IN DOGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1939, Page 3

DISTEMPER IN DOGS

WAIRARAPA DOGS INOCULATED.

NEW SERUM PROVED EFFECTIVE

Under the auspices of the North Island Sheep-Dog Trials Association. 19 dogs were inoculated against distemper at Pahiatua yesterday by the Masterton veterinarian, Mr S. Fletcher.

The dogs were given injections of specially-imported distemper virus and prophylactic serum.

Interviewed in Pahiatua, Mr C. J. McDonald, secretary of the Wairarapa and Southern Hawke’s Bay Dog Trials Association, and Mr W. Bane, secretarj’ of the Pahiatua Dog Trial Club, both expressed complete confidence in the treatment. Mr Bane said that among the 30 dogs inoculated by Mr Fletcher in Pahiatua last August, were two of his own. Some weeks later, sheepdogs on his on farm, contracted distemper, but his efforts to have them contaminate the inoculated dogs were useless — the treated dogs remained immune and the others died. That, he said, was surely certain proof that the serum was effective.

The average value of a sheep-dog was about £lO, said Mr Bane. When a clog contracted distemper, the owner would readily spend £5 on so-called remedies. But prevention was always better than cure. Once a dog was inoculated with the new serum, it was immune from distemper for life.

Mr McDonald said losses from distemper cost New Zealand farmers thousands of pounds yearly, but even when a sure preventive like the prophylactic serum was made available at a reasonable cost, it was hard to make farmers realise its value. Since the serum was introduced into the country last year, 438 clogs had been treated in the Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa districts, with excellent results.