Important to Sheepfarmers.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 660, 17 September 1891, Page 3

Important to Sheepfarmers.

THE LUNGWORM.

! The Sheep Inspector, Mr Campbell Thomson, requests us to publish, for the information of sheepfarmers, the following extract from the New Zealand Times, on the report of Mr M’Clean, who was instructed by Government to report on the prevalence of lungworm in the Wairarapa :—Having examined affected stock and country, M’Clean says that until pastoralists acquaint themselves more closely with the life history of the lungworm, and recognise that year by year the pest will increase its ravages, according to the locality and the suitableness of the seasons, but little benefit can accrue from any recommendation he may make. Dealing with remedie?, the report proceeds as follows :— “ There is no donbt that where lungworm ip prevalent the best remedy of all is to plough and crop the infected area for one or two seasons. The substitution of cattle for sheep for a season will also go a long way toward cleaning a country, as the lungworm of sheep does not affect cattle, and vice versa. Then again, there is the Australian method of shutting up the infected area for some months, and then firing the growth that has taken place. Where owners cannot or will not adopt any of the above methods, it only remains for them to take all care that their lambs are in good condition before and at the time of weaning, and thus render their system less liable to fall an easy prey to the disease. This, I need hardly say, can only be attained by good feed and pure water in liberal quantity, and general good management. In <he country I have been examining I cannot too strorgly recommend the allowance of a free supply cf salt from the middle of summer right through the autumn. For this purpose I would prefer the use of inferior common 1 salt, commonly known as Liverpool salt, placed in troughs about the paddocks. Rock 1 salt, though infinitely better than no salt at

all, is too liable to injure the teeth of lambs and thus render them unfit for turnips later on in the season. Another advantage Liverpool salt possesses ia that sny other medicament can be incorporated with it, and for this purpose I know nothing better than the following mixture Liverpool salt 100 parts, chlorate of potash 10 parts, sulphate of iron 5 parts. Lambs provided with this mixture will reader themselves worm proof, I 6tn often asked if drenching lambs ia any good, and am forced to reply in the negative, and I am of opinion ’hat unless in the hands of a oompatent and oaretui man much unnecessary pain and serious damage is too often inflicted on animals, mostly in a delicate state of health, by the injudicious mixing and administration of the various drugs used. If any owner is of opinion that he ought to drench his lambs, let it bo done two or three times early in the year, andj advisedly, with turpentine and milk thoroughly incorporated, It la worse than useless to wait till guch time os the hoggets are coughing j the object of drenching should be to cause the expulsion of the worm before it has gained an entry into the lungs or blood stream, The lambs should be carefully handled, the mouth gently opened by an assistant, and the medicine slowly allowed to fall into the mouth, in order that the animal may have time to swallow it, and not, as one too often sees, the mouth roughly torn open by one man while another as roughly squirts the medicine out of a syringe, the bulk of it not entering the gullet as intended, but passing direct into the larynx, setting up a violent fit of coughing, and in the end causing severe bronchial disturbance.” In conc’usion Mr M’olean expresses an opinion that if owners attend to tfaeeo directions it may be confidently expected that lungworm will be reduced to a minimum. Mr M’O’ean informed Mr Pasley that milk actually dissolves the turpentine, so that when it is obtainable It is better than oil,