BLOWFLY DRESSING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 July 1940, Page 9

BLOWFLY DRESSING

SUCCESSFUL TESTS MADE. AN AUSTRALIAN REMEDY Though the blowfly trouble is not nearly so bad in the Dominion’s sheep flocks as in those of some other countries, it is on occasions a cause of considerable losses in high-country flocks. A new dressing, therefore, produced by the McMaster Laboratory, Sydney, which is claimed to have given exceptionally satisfactory results, will be welcomed. The dressing contains boracic acid and camphor oil, and kills both maggots and flies that comes in contact with it. The dressing is known at C.B.E. After trial under laboratory conditions the dressing was subjected to a series of practical field tests under conditions favourable to fly-strike, especially crutch-strike, which covers about 90 per cent, of the affected ewes. So Athat the tests might be of the utmost value, they were carried out ‘on a number of properties over a wide area of New South Wales and Queensland, where fly-strike is usually prevalent. The tests, which lasted from the autumn of 1938 to the autumn of last year, were made by graziers in collaboration with the science men. Results, as a whole, are regarded as j satisfactory. Of 140 sheep treated in " one trial, only nine were restruck within 14 days, most of them being on one property, where an exceptionally severe fly attack was experienced. Observations on the incidence of crutchstrike in the course of other field trials suggest that the restruck sheep might be of a highly susceptible type, and very difficult to protect from restrike. To check this, a special trial was carried out on sheep whose fly-strike record for the previous 18 months was known. The results of this trial were similar to those on the property where nine sheep were restruck in a fortnight. All were very wrinkly sheep, the crutches of which were always damp, even when the wool was closely shorn, and the restrikes occurred on what was virtually bare, damp skin. In all cases the struck area outside the damp portion healed cleanly and quickly. The new dressing was very easy to apply. It was found that all full-grown flies coming in contect with the dressing died instantly. Strike wounds were found to heal rapidly; and there was no evidence that the dressing had any harmful effect on either the skin or the wound. The wool remained free and did not become matted after treatment. The dressing has not yet been available to graziers for large-scale tests under every-day conditions, as the war has held up imports of camphor oil. However, early shipments are due very soon. *