HYDATID MENACE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 March 1943, Page 4

HYDATID MENACE

HAS YOUR DOG KILLED ANYONE? AN APPEAL TO REASON. HOW THE DISEASE IS SPREAD. Two New Zealanders are condemned to the operating table each week, one to the grave each month, because of hydatids, caught from dogs . . . half the sheep in New Zealand suffer from cysts from dogs’ worm-eggs .... £200,000 at least is lost annually here through condemned livers alone, states the Department of Health When these facts are mentioned to groups of people, amazement is expressed that the position is so serious; and the question is asked, “Why on earth don’t they do something about it?” When people are asked who they mean by “they” the reply invariably is: “Oh, the Government, I suppose.” Well, the Government has done a good deal. Amongst other things it has issued to all dog-owners at cost price the modern vermifuge arecoline —chosen for its high efficiency against dog tapeworms, and for its safety to dogs so long as it is used correctly. The “they” who are not doing something are a large proportion of New Zealand dogowners. Any dog that has ever had the chance to eat raw offal or dead sheep (this applies to all country dogs and some town dogs) is liable to have hydatid or other tapeworms. If you leave such a dog undosed, you are menacing the lives of yourself and all around you, and are allowing stock animals to become diseased and hence to depreciate in ultimate value. At this year’s registration, the last of the present stock of arecoline will be distributed. Owing to the war, future supplies are uncertain. So do not waste this year’s tablets. Dose your dog now, and at three-monthly intervals. The fewer infected dogs this year, the fewer lambs get cysts next season. And the smaller the proportion of stock with cysts, the lower the number of dogs that will bt subsequently infected. For stock and humans catch hydatids only from dogs’ worm-eggs, passed in their droppings. And dogs acquire tiny hydatid worms (and also large tapeworms) only from eating cysts in offal. One hydatid cyst in sheep or man may contain hundreds of thousands of minute worm-heads. These, if eaten by a dog, become hydatid worms. But if a cyst in a human bursts in his body, each worm-head may become a new cyst. Imagine a hydatid in yourself, slowly growing during the course of years till it presses on your liver or lungs or brain or other organs, causing serious illness. Then sometimes a cyst may be burst by some casual knock or fall, freeing its worm-heads among the organs of the body—each of hundreds of young parasites gradually growing into a new cyst—a few removed at one operation, a few at the next—a struggle between you and those hosts of invaders, sometimes won by one, sometimes by the other. That is the picture of hydatid disease, from which, on an average, . a New Zealander dies each month —dies unnecessarily, because someone didn’t dose his dog. If you own a dog, it is your responsibility to dose it. If all dogs had arecoline, if no dogs ate raw offal, hydatid disease would vanish. Are you doing your bit?