DISEASE AMONG SHEEP.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5061, 26 June 1895, Page 2

DISEASE AMONG SHEEP.

-♦— -*/ [Professor Limon], All books on sheep pathology, in dealing with worms, wholly overlook the deadly diseases which some&s precede or accompany them, w(th are far more fatal than worms, and j strange as it may seem, nearly all authors on animal diseases overlook this important fact. For instance sheep never have lungworm (Stron- \ gylus h'laria) or fluke (Hepar distoma) without having organio disease of the lungs or liver, and even after the parasites are got rid I of, these diseases go on killing your sheep, and yet no recommendation is made by book authorities. In dealing with conditions really worse than worms I may say it is endorsed by the condition of your sheep and continual fall iu price of wool. Now, c how can a sheep produce good wool ■. with impoverished condition! Do you think sheep make tho quantity * or quality of wool when diseased as when in health? No, certainly not; it is not even feasible to the most shallow-minded. Again, youiave been crossing for length You have itiu a sense, butyoufoiget 1' all about your frame audconstitution. This you are losing, for both are becoming gradually poorer in every way you may take it. YOUR WOOL is not what it was years ago, yet you top the market for prices; but w .- you can do better, "raise your constitution," increase your wool and improve it by treating your sheep on scientific lines, Some questions of immense moment may be dealt with here, and these may be put thus: Judging from our scientific knowlege, is there likely to i bo any method discovered by whioh •' all diseases can bo wiped out ? The answer is emphatically, " No!" Can we doctor sheep with any kind of poison, for cheapness sake, retain the fine wool and good nvHm ? No! This has been tried by hundreds of squatters, with no permanent ; good, but with an immense amount of permanent injury, The managers of stations where arsenic, etc., were used years ago, now shudder at the name, for it is indeed ruinous, as the tremendous loss of sheep show. Now, "' s these terrible diseases have taken many years to conie to what f thoy now are. Do you think * for one moment that they caa be got rid of in one year? No, of course not; you have not only to LOOK AT YOBlt SUEEP for the answer, but you have to reckon with the permanent diseased Sroimd, grass, and water. These •'; must be purilied.or if yon allow them to remain saturated and polluted v, itli the seeds and germs of disease, you must consequently deal with the sheep and use an adequate life-pre-serving agent on or for thorn, No doubt, if the constitutional strength ■ of sheep were brought up to its highest pitch, it would not on£ be possible to e::teruiiuate paiHical diseases, hut at the samo tnno to plncothoslieepbeyondtho possibility of a another invasion; but tho restoring of another constitution takes longer than tho expulsiou of parasites. On soino stations this * must be tho work of years, but once accomplished it is impossible for parasites to do any harm to sheop. We have all along insisted on this as of chief importance, and stations that have persisted in an annual treatment, are, a3 far as we know, free from disease. Of course, '• DISEASED SHEEP are not different from other animals, and must be treated according to their ailments. I think it is useless to drench with a general drench, for how can arsenic, turpontino, tobacco, etc., do the lungs any good ! These \ drugs acts as tonics and rid the sheep of a few worms, bat than does really a thousand times moiMirm than good, as tho heavy death-rate of your sheep prove. As a rule, tho worms, you see, give a poor idea of (the thousands of parasites in the blood and flesh that you do not see, 4 In districts that are troubled with disease, the lung disease is tho first cause of the trouble. Now, mere lungworm is not a disease, but a result of the organic disease of the lungs; but thoy produce a condition • of the lungs, which is one causo of. consumption of the whole body. I '* Lave known lungworm to be prevalent in a stud of sheep foryeavs wMioukessation,withoutappatontly injuring the sheep, hut it gradually weakened the lung tissues, and each generation became more subject to lung and other worms and liver- '■«• parasites, If you havo a chronic disease in the lung or liver, such disease will most likely havo run through your Hock. Now yoJWjave a weak system, which is fkdi s . posed to whatever disease happens to he about, so with a little thinking you will realise that this lung >. disease has taken years to arrive at its present state of virulence, and although tho lambs toko it, princip- : ally from the grass, they are born predisposed to it, and tho safest surest, and MOST IWITAIII.E TREATMENT . is to begin at the beginning s B „j Kdrench your ewes in lamb, )JU thoy may throw off tolerably healtby progeny; then commence > io the lambs at two months, again at four months, and then at weanW for if you allow this disease to get a firm hold of youv sheep, y olllmist X introduce an annual treatment, and by degrees breed into your stud a strongsystem that will resist diseas A Any of you will understand that prevention is easier and better than, cure Again, there are diseases which are incurable, but with a chango to a different pasturMjev may improve and do well*"; time though this is not alwavspr dC ticable. One thing is certain, those lung and liver diseases can beer , re{ i or.l may say, cbecked, and the J rate reduced to a minimum b, a J nnt jog an early treatment } X lecturer was here interrupted bv Mr Anderson, who wished was the cause of «F Mle ,.. W g lecturer went into Om„;i i• • that-Bottle'»w 1 „,, / , *"> an outward sien & y^ tl 'atdropsywasnofa omphcationtfotherdiseases.] The ~ proceeded: Don't wait , wii your'sb.eeparerottenaud nothing - v ' M be done, as hundreds have done Juhßiush fatal results, for this , diseaseifithasnotalreadyattackod your sheep, assuredly will in time, therefore prepare them to meet it. If your country is saturated with ' disease, and you are breeding your , s sheep predisposed or suffering from '' this consumptive disease, we cannot absolutely prevent them by any known treatment the first year, still you will prevent the reproduction or increase of these ; parasites, an&ou will not have diseases in yoursfieop 1 ' .. sufficient to interfere ■ with • wool,. • carcase,..or cause death....Ton see yon must adopt an annual treatment to check the disease. These diseases, are controlled is a'great measure h

'..,■• the seasons, because it is cortaii 'X.; that temperatures and surrounding! mature them, In conclusion, I maj say that I have not dwelt much ir abstract science; my business is now of an expert practitioner, and J now prepared to reply toanj questions you may desire to ask.