SHEEP AND THEIR DISEASES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2923, 9 April 1891, Page 4

SHEEP AND THEIR DISEASES.

TitK steady rino in tho price of wool and mutton for tlie last sta.«on or two, mid tliu dUbiliby of the trade which is confidently predicted, h»> had a very marked tll'cct iu directing the attention of landholders in Waikato to this branch of I heir industry. Notwithstanding the larjjo number of ."hoop introduced into Waikato from outside quarters as well as the increase within the district, there still exists a considerable unsatitied demand, as was clearly manifest by the briskness apparent iu tho biddiug at the lato fairs hold by Messrs McNieol and Hunter, when prices advanced considerably over those obtained earlier in the season The management of sheep therefore will, iu tho future, occupy tho main attention of Waikato farmers. In view of this, we propose to ro-priut extracts from works by the best authorities upon the subject dealing with tho diseases and treatment of Hheep. The following article ou parasitic diseases of lungs in calves and sheep iu taken from a atuudard work writton by Prof. Camsree, Principal of tho new veterinary College Edinburgh, one of tho highest authorities on tho jeet:--Next to rot, this is by far the most destructive diseaso of young sheep in the south of England. It is not so destructive in Scotland, bnt has injured farmers much this season in Ireland.

If tho lungs of sheep aro examined in butchers' shops, a very largo number of them will be found studded with deposits, once regarded as tubercular.

This tubercle, in reality, consists, in a deposit of ova of tho stroiigi/lus filaria (Reed), surrounded by epithelium and granule colls, oily and crystalline deposit, with debris of healthy lung 1 tissue. Generally this opaque and semi-gelatinous material ii observed towards tho more healthy part of the lungs in the shape of circumscribed masses, often not exceeding tho sizo of an ordinary pin's head, and if each Jittlo nodule bo squeezed, a gritty substance, the result of cretifaction of the above-mentioned deposit, is felt between tho fingers. Each nodule indicates a spot where the germs of the strongylus filaria have been deposited, giving rise to irritation and the exudation of material around them ; in this material granulo and pus cells dovelopo, and fatty, and lastly caloareous degeneration ensue. The eggs are of an oval shape. They are at first transparent, but in all those that aro fecundated tho yolk cleaves, and, by progressive subdivision of colls formed out of the yolk, a cellular mass is formed, which assumes an elongated and coiled appearance, and proeonts tho external form and interial organisation of the strongylus filaria. The parasite, coiled on itself and alive in the coll, moves about and at last becomes free and grows to its full size, passing out of the tissue of the Jung into the air passages, whence it is roughed out and often deposited ou grass and other substances likely to bo eaten by thesheop. How it attains the lungs to deposit its eggs is involved iu mystery, —perhaps by directly piercing tho tissue from the stomach to tho lungs : though, from the eggs boing universally disseminated over the lungs, wo might be led to conjecture that the ova are introduced into tho circulation and stopped in tho pulmonary capillaries, whore they produco irritation, and tho deposit, before described, accumulates around.

The strongylus filnria is a worm from one to two and a half inclics in length, tho male smaller than the female and yellowish, whereas tho latter is white. Tho body is of uniform size, but tapered at tho extreme ends. Anteriorly is the head, short, stumpy, and matted, not tuburculated an J Unit of other strongyli, but rather angular. From tho mouth extends a short (esophagus into n short but elongated stomach, and from this the straight intestine o:;tend:; back nearly to tho extrimo end of the tail, a HI tie anteriorly to which is tho amis. In the male an undivided circular aliform expansion, obliquely situated to tho lino of the body, surrounds o spaco in which the penis i.° observed. Tho tail of the female is pointed, the vulva situated near tliu anus, and from tho vulva extend tho oviducts full of eggs, uud containing also live young. Iu ealvos similar parasites abound under certain circumstances in the respiratory organs. Tbo utronr/i/lux viittlortun (Reed), or 67/-. mierurn.l (Mohlis), is one of the armed strongyli with a iiliform body, short caudal, long in the male, and mouth with three papilla;. This species is met with in tho air passigcs of calves, and occasionally in the n«x. Nicholls in the first volume of the Philosophical Transactions, mentions the /'tali, common amongst calves under one year old, as dependent on worms in the windpipe ; and in 17SS, when Camper was engaged in investigating tbo oattle plaguo, and especially tho advantages of inoculation as a preventive, he Icarue'd that one of his neighbours who ha l saved ud calves by inoculation, lost o0 by this parasitic alluction. On the 2nd of [September of the same year, Camper had occasion to examine the trachea and lung of a calf that had died, as ho expresses himself, with myriads of these worms in tho air passages. On another calf Camper uoliced a perfect ball of these worms elieelually obstructing tho windpipe. Ho described the worms well, aud observed that thoy were viviparous. In his literary researches on tho subject he found that Gesr.er hud called a worm Wiisser/tttli, calf of water, of which he knew not the origin, but that calves swallowed them with the water to the great peril of their lives— miijiiu ttiam V'lv pn-'rii/o.

In the pig a similar affection has been observed, and the wcrra has been described best by Mehlis and Gurlt. It has been culled ilroiujltisparadoxus (Mehlis) ;gordlus pulmouuli npri (Ebel) ; <ise<tris fihjormL* cttdit rotunduta (Goeze) ; ate. broHc/tiorum mix (Modaer) ; and strongylus suh by Rudolphi, who looked on it as a doubtful species, having seen but two specimens which he had reoieved from Bremsor, and which had been found in the air passages of the domestic pijr, Gurk speaks of them as infesting the wild boar and the domestic pig, but that it is rare. Alessandrini, on the other hand, says that in Bologna ho has found largo numbers in the lunga of pigs killed in the public slaughter-houses, and it has sinco been recognised as frequent in Switzerland and France, Tho Mrunmjhi* pnrado.cit* has a norrow mouth, fnrnished with threo papilla': tho caudal hag is bi.lobed, and turned downwards. In tho fetnalo there is an enlargement whero tho nuns is observed; tho tail is short and pointed. The male is from eight to uino lines in length, and the female about an inch and a half. Tho females aro by far tho most numerous of tho two,