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Retrospect
Brit. vet. J . (1963), 119. 329
RETROSPECT Discovery and Practice The continued active interest of the National Sheep Breeders Association in agricultural development is shown by their announcement of a competition with prize money of fifty guineas for original papers submitted under the title: " Between Discovery and Practice-Problems of communication for sheep farmers" . The purpose of this essay competition is to focus interest and stimulate constructive suggestions on the scope for improvement in communications as they affect sheep production in Britain. More fully, it concerns the relationship between the application of resources for research and experiment, the extension of results from such work, and the need of sheep farmers to obtain and use new knowledge and techniques. This is something to which the Association have drawn attention before and in this competition particular attention will be paid by the judges to the identification of problems and to practical suggestions for their solution. Coypu Clearance in East Anglia Last August the Ministry of Agriculture started a campaign to control the coypus which had been spreading in eastern England. A special team began to deal with the main area of infestation in Norfolk and North Suffolk by a systematic drive inwards from its perimeter. The outer four-mile wide strip of this area has now been cleared, trapping is almost finished in the second strip and the next is being.surveyed. Infestation in the rest of the region was lighter and more sporadic, but it was potentially dangerous and also had to be dealt with. All known coypu colonies have however now been cleared from eastern England except for those parts of Norfolk and Suffolk which are still within the main campaign area. The responsibility for coypu control in the cleared area now reverts to individual occupiers, who must by law inform of coypu on their land. The county agricultural executive committees have powers to require them to destroy coypus. Farm Crossings It is hoped that some official inquiry will be made into a problem which affects all road users, but particularly farmers, and is not without especial interest to veterinary surgeons in country practice. Roads originally designed for local traffic are now being used for heavy through traffic and emphasis on helping the motorist has resulted in the farmer's interests often being overlooked. Long stretches of rural roads have been designated as "Clearways" and gaps in the central reserves of dual carriage ways have been closed to p
330
BRITISH VETERINARY JOURNAL, 119,7
prohibit right-hand turns. There is apparently extreme reluctance to recommend the provision of "Cattle Crossing" signs, and "Clearways" have had the result of speeding up traffic, so that it is difficult for farm machinery and animals to cross the road safely. Alternatively farmers and animals have to make wide detours and in turn this has meant slow-moving machinery and cattle are spending longer on public roads. These problems do not usually arise in the case of motor ways, where if it has proved impracticable to effect an exchange of land the farmer is sometimes provided with means of passing over or under the motorway. The National Farmers' Union says that in one place it is impossible to take livestock across the road and the farmer has given up keeping a dairy herd. Sheep have to be moved across the road by lorry but because most of the traffic travels at over 60 m.p.h., it is often impossible to cross in under ten minutes. Thirty-five acres of grazing land have been severed in another place, where moving cattle across the road requires at least four men, and there are numerous other instances of difficulties of this sort. A New Milk Recording System The Milk Marketing Board have decided to test a new cheap and simple type of milk recording, providing participants with records for breeding and management with the minimum of disturbance to the milking routine. The essential features of this new system are that the farmer weighs the milk from his cows each month and takes butterfat samples every alternate month. The recorder collects the records each month but on random occasions makes a full check of the recording accuracy. In the trial period there will be an average of three checks per herd a year. The trial will start in October of this year and last for 18 months, thus giving adequate time to test details of operation and its general appeal to milk producers. Nine hundred herds either in private milk records or not already recording are needed. A further hundred farmers, using National Milk Records and recording by means of monthly weighing, will be invited to participate while continuing their full N.M.R. recording method for comparison. The trial is, therefore, designed to cover one thousand herds spread throughout England and Wales. It is similar to a system used in Sweden and which has been very impressive for its economy. It is hoped that a service may be evolved which will appeal to and satisfy the needs of a larger number of milk producers than at present. Farmers will receive each month a document on which to record yields. This will be collected by a trained part-time recorder, sent to the office for calculation and returned to the farm as an up to date monthly statement of milk and butterfat records. Individual lactation records will also be automatically provided and the recorder will undertake such practical matters on the farm as ear-marking. Samples for butterfat testing will be taken on alternate months and results entered on the monthly statement. Sampling by farmers has long been practised as an integral part of official milk recording in Denmark and Sweden. Random check visits will be made which will be in no way possible for the farmer to anticipate.
RETROSPECT
33 1
Enzootic Pneumonia of Pigs This month we publish an account of one aspect of recent work on enzootic pneumonia of pigs and it seems worth-while looking back on some of the earlier research. In I939 Lamont and Shanks drew attention to the occurrence of a virus pneumonia in pigs in the British Isles which they termed piglet influenza or infectious pneumonia. Subsequently, in I952, Lamont stated that it would appear that he had described as one entity two very similar diseases of pigs, viz. piglet influenza and the virus pneumonia described by Betts and Beveridge in the early fifties. The disease described by Lamont and the post-mortem findings would appear to be identical with that described by the Cambridge workers. The name of the disease has now been changed to enzootic pneumonia. In their early communications Lamont and Shanks stated that "at certain seasons of the year from 50 to 70 per cent of pigs passing through the bacon factories may show evidence of having been affected". These figures are very similar to those published subsequently by the Cambridge workers. It will be obvious that enzootic pneumonia is very widespread and causes very serious losses. Lamont stated as long ago as 1938: "In winter time in cold, damp houses, up to 100 per cent of infected pigs may succumb and under good conditions 10 to 30 per cent losses may occur, but in either case the survivors are affected with a chronic spasmodic cough until they are ultimately slaughtered. Many affected pigs become unthrifty and are very prone to develop a fatal attack of pneumonia if exposed to adverse conditions". A great deal of work has of course been done since then, and contributions have been made from Cambridge, Glasgow, Weybridge and Compton. It seems a reasonable assumption that healthy pigs should be a better paying proposition than pigs affected with enzootic pneumonia kept under identical conditions, so that in considering this disease there are two sources of loss, the actual deaths and the losses due to morbidity and unthriftiness. To deal with these losses two methods are advocated, the eradication of enzootic pneumonia with the establishment of "clean" herds and the improvement of housing conditions so that pigs are maintained under stable temperatures of around
70 °F. Various systems leading to the establishment of clean herds have been described, but probably that described by Betts and his collaborators is the most reliable, although many farmers claim to have dealt with the loss from enzootic pneumonia by improvements in housing, and figures are available showing that their food conversion rates and percentage mortality are not inferior to clean farms. Naturally, total eradication should be the method of choice, but owing to the widespread nature of the disease the improvement of housing offers a useful alternative until a sufficient number of "clean" pigs are available for breeding and fattening purposes. No doubt attention is being focussed on the aetiological agents responsible for enzootic pneumonia and modern techniques should establish if more than one virus is responsible. The paper published in this issue shows clearly the serious loss produced in a clean herd by an outbreak of enzootic pneumonia. It also indicates the
33 2
BRITISH VETERINARY JOURNAL, 119, 7
success which can attend eradication of the disease. The infection is so widespread that it will require unremitting care on the part of the farmer to avoid its reintroduction, but no doubt the occurrence d escribed in this case will emphasize to the farmer the necessity for taking every precaution.
Edinburgh Everyone who has been associated with Sir Alick Buchanan-Smith's many roles-farmer, soldier, university lecturer, geneticist, public figure, will have been pleased by the conferment on him of a life peerage in the Birthday Honours. It will have been noted with especial pleasure in the veterinary profession by those whom he taught in Edinburgh before the war and to whom he gave more than a hint of what a university and a university course really should be like.
Advertiser's Announcements Smith Kline & French Laboratories have introduced "Canotane"-an antibacterial and anaesthetic ointment specifically designed for use in otitis extern a in dogs. "Canotane" combines the wide-range antibacterial action of the nitrofuran "Furacin" with soothing topical anaesthetic properties so that it deals with the bacterial infection and simultaneously relieves itching and pain which could lead to scratching and further infection of the ear. It has a special oil-inwater emulsion base for maximum penetration into the ear canal, and the tube nozzle is elongated to ensure easy administration. Hoechst Chemicals Limited (formerly of 50 Jermyn Street), and Hoechst Pharmaceuticals Limited (formerly of Slough, Bucks), have moved their offices to Portland House, Stag Place, Victoria, London, S.W. I.
RETROSPECT Discovery and Practice The continued active interest of the National Sheep Breeders Association in agricultural development is shown by their announcement of a competition with prize money of fifty guineas for original papers submitted under the title: " Between Discovery and Practice-Problems of communication for sheep farmers" . The purpose of this essay competition is to focus interest and stimulate constructive suggestions on the scope for improvement in communications as they affect sheep production in Britain. More fully, it concerns the relationship between the application of resources for research and experiment, the extension of results from such work, and the need of sheep farmers to obtain and use new knowledge and techniques. This is something to which the Association have drawn attention before and in this competition particular attention will be paid by the judges to the identification of problems and to practical suggestions for their solution. Coypu Clearance in East Anglia Last August the Ministry of Agriculture started a campaign to control the coypus which had been spreading in eastern England. A special team began to deal with the main area of infestation in Norfolk and North Suffolk by a systematic drive inwards from its perimeter. The outer four-mile wide strip of this area has now been cleared, trapping is almost finished in the second strip and the next is being.surveyed. Infestation in the rest of the region was lighter and more sporadic, but it was potentially dangerous and also had to be dealt with. All known coypu colonies have however now been cleared from eastern England except for those parts of Norfolk and Suffolk which are still within the main campaign area. The responsibility for coypu control in the cleared area now reverts to individual occupiers, who must by law inform of coypu on their land. The county agricultural executive committees have powers to require them to destroy coypus. Farm Crossings It is hoped that some official inquiry will be made into a problem which affects all road users, but particularly farmers, and is not without especial interest to veterinary surgeons in country practice. Roads originally designed for local traffic are now being used for heavy through traffic and emphasis on helping the motorist has resulted in the farmer's interests often being overlooked. Long stretches of rural roads have been designated as "Clearways" and gaps in the central reserves of dual carriage ways have been closed to p
330
BRITISH VETERINARY JOURNAL, 119,7
prohibit right-hand turns. There is apparently extreme reluctance to recommend the provision of "Cattle Crossing" signs, and "Clearways" have had the result of speeding up traffic, so that it is difficult for farm machinery and animals to cross the road safely. Alternatively farmers and animals have to make wide detours and in turn this has meant slow-moving machinery and cattle are spending longer on public roads. These problems do not usually arise in the case of motor ways, where if it has proved impracticable to effect an exchange of land the farmer is sometimes provided with means of passing over or under the motorway. The National Farmers' Union says that in one place it is impossible to take livestock across the road and the farmer has given up keeping a dairy herd. Sheep have to be moved across the road by lorry but because most of the traffic travels at over 60 m.p.h., it is often impossible to cross in under ten minutes. Thirty-five acres of grazing land have been severed in another place, where moving cattle across the road requires at least four men, and there are numerous other instances of difficulties of this sort. A New Milk Recording System The Milk Marketing Board have decided to test a new cheap and simple type of milk recording, providing participants with records for breeding and management with the minimum of disturbance to the milking routine. The essential features of this new system are that the farmer weighs the milk from his cows each month and takes butterfat samples every alternate month. The recorder collects the records each month but on random occasions makes a full check of the recording accuracy. In the trial period there will be an average of three checks per herd a year. The trial will start in October of this year and last for 18 months, thus giving adequate time to test details of operation and its general appeal to milk producers. Nine hundred herds either in private milk records or not already recording are needed. A further hundred farmers, using National Milk Records and recording by means of monthly weighing, will be invited to participate while continuing their full N.M.R. recording method for comparison. The trial is, therefore, designed to cover one thousand herds spread throughout England and Wales. It is similar to a system used in Sweden and which has been very impressive for its economy. It is hoped that a service may be evolved which will appeal to and satisfy the needs of a larger number of milk producers than at present. Farmers will receive each month a document on which to record yields. This will be collected by a trained part-time recorder, sent to the office for calculation and returned to the farm as an up to date monthly statement of milk and butterfat records. Individual lactation records will also be automatically provided and the recorder will undertake such practical matters on the farm as ear-marking. Samples for butterfat testing will be taken on alternate months and results entered on the monthly statement. Sampling by farmers has long been practised as an integral part of official milk recording in Denmark and Sweden. Random check visits will be made which will be in no way possible for the farmer to anticipate.
RETROSPECT
33 1
Enzootic Pneumonia of Pigs This month we publish an account of one aspect of recent work on enzootic pneumonia of pigs and it seems worth-while looking back on some of the earlier research. In I939 Lamont and Shanks drew attention to the occurrence of a virus pneumonia in pigs in the British Isles which they termed piglet influenza or infectious pneumonia. Subsequently, in I952, Lamont stated that it would appear that he had described as one entity two very similar diseases of pigs, viz. piglet influenza and the virus pneumonia described by Betts and Beveridge in the early fifties. The disease described by Lamont and the post-mortem findings would appear to be identical with that described by the Cambridge workers. The name of the disease has now been changed to enzootic pneumonia. In their early communications Lamont and Shanks stated that "at certain seasons of the year from 50 to 70 per cent of pigs passing through the bacon factories may show evidence of having been affected". These figures are very similar to those published subsequently by the Cambridge workers. It will be obvious that enzootic pneumonia is very widespread and causes very serious losses. Lamont stated as long ago as 1938: "In winter time in cold, damp houses, up to 100 per cent of infected pigs may succumb and under good conditions 10 to 30 per cent losses may occur, but in either case the survivors are affected with a chronic spasmodic cough until they are ultimately slaughtered. Many affected pigs become unthrifty and are very prone to develop a fatal attack of pneumonia if exposed to adverse conditions". A great deal of work has of course been done since then, and contributions have been made from Cambridge, Glasgow, Weybridge and Compton. It seems a reasonable assumption that healthy pigs should be a better paying proposition than pigs affected with enzootic pneumonia kept under identical conditions, so that in considering this disease there are two sources of loss, the actual deaths and the losses due to morbidity and unthriftiness. To deal with these losses two methods are advocated, the eradication of enzootic pneumonia with the establishment of "clean" herds and the improvement of housing conditions so that pigs are maintained under stable temperatures of around
70 °F. Various systems leading to the establishment of clean herds have been described, but probably that described by Betts and his collaborators is the most reliable, although many farmers claim to have dealt with the loss from enzootic pneumonia by improvements in housing, and figures are available showing that their food conversion rates and percentage mortality are not inferior to clean farms. Naturally, total eradication should be the method of choice, but owing to the widespread nature of the disease the improvement of housing offers a useful alternative until a sufficient number of "clean" pigs are available for breeding and fattening purposes. No doubt attention is being focussed on the aetiological agents responsible for enzootic pneumonia and modern techniques should establish if more than one virus is responsible. The paper published in this issue shows clearly the serious loss produced in a clean herd by an outbreak of enzootic pneumonia. It also indicates the
33 2
BRITISH VETERINARY JOURNAL, 119, 7
success which can attend eradication of the disease. The infection is so widespread that it will require unremitting care on the part of the farmer to avoid its reintroduction, but no doubt the occurrence d escribed in this case will emphasize to the farmer the necessity for taking every precaution.
Edinburgh Everyone who has been associated with Sir Alick Buchanan-Smith's many roles-farmer, soldier, university lecturer, geneticist, public figure, will have been pleased by the conferment on him of a life peerage in the Birthday Honours. It will have been noted with especial pleasure in the veterinary profession by those whom he taught in Edinburgh before the war and to whom he gave more than a hint of what a university and a university course really should be like.
Advertiser's Announcements Smith Kline & French Laboratories have introduced "Canotane"-an antibacterial and anaesthetic ointment specifically designed for use in otitis extern a in dogs. "Canotane" combines the wide-range antibacterial action of the nitrofuran "Furacin" with soothing topical anaesthetic properties so that it deals with the bacterial infection and simultaneously relieves itching and pain which could lead to scratching and further infection of the ear. It has a special oil-inwater emulsion base for maximum penetration into the ear canal, and the tube nozzle is elongated to ensure easy administration. Hoechst Chemicals Limited (formerly of 50 Jermyn Street), and Hoechst Pharmaceuticals Limited (formerly of Slough, Bucks), have moved their offices to Portland House, Stag Place, Victoria, London, S.W. I.