HYDATID DISEASE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 May 1941, Page 6

HYDATID DISEASE

THE TREATMENT OF DOGS BEING NEGLECTED IN SOME INSTANCES. VALUABLE SAFEGUARD ENDANGERED. Some owners of dogs in this district are reported to be refusing to carry out the measures prescribed by law (under an amendment in 1939 of the Dog Registration Act) for the cure or prevention of hydatid disease in dogs, with a view to safeguarding human beings against infection. I Under the arrangements now in force supplies of an approved medicine and instructions as to its use are issued to owners of dogs at,the annual registration period. A very serious view is taken of the refusal of some owners of clogs to dose the animals as the instructions direct. The disease of hydatids continues to claim its annual toll of human victims —4G cases were notified throughout the Dominion in 1938, the latest year for which particulars . are given in the current “Year Book." The treatment' of all dogs now provided for in the Dog Registration Act was instituted in order to establish the greatest possible safeguards against the spread of an extremely distressing and dreadful disease. If the safeguards directed are to serve their purpose, the treatment of dogs must bo carried out universally. Failure in some instances to carry out these safeguards means that the danger to human beings continues.