Sheep Scab in Great Britain

SHEEP SCAB IN GREAT BRITAIN

IG7

SHEEP SCAB IN GREAT BRITAIN. Conference Between The Royal Agricultural Society and the Ministry of Agriculture. TH E in crease in the num ber of outbreaks of sheep scab in Great Britain has become so alarming, th at on March 6th, 1929, the Minister of Agriculture, a ttend d by Mr. J. J ac kson , M.R. e .V.s. , Captain Briscoe, M.P. , and Mr. Houghton , received th e deputation from the Royal Agricultural Society a nd the Sheep Breede rs' Association in order to disclis3 what could be don e to lessen, and if possible sta mp out th e disease. Sir Merrik F3urrell, Captain J oh nstone and :Hr. ;\l frecl Mansell represented the I~ .A.S.E., and :vIr. Egerton Quested a lldMr. Stilgoe the Sheep Breeders' Association. A lengthy discussion to ok place, the whole situation being carefully reviewed. It was agreed by all that although t h e current l~eg ulatio n s of the Ministry of Agriculture a re s ufficient a nd !l eed no alteration, yet the present position is deplorable. Th erefore, the gravity of th e fact that the outbreaks of this disease a re to-day as freq uent and a~ widely spread a they we re 20 years ago, in spite of c\'Cry kind of official effort to red uce th em , can not be exagge rated. It was agreed also that the suggestion of a double dipping orde r (i.e. dipping twice within 1"1 days) for all counties, is unwi se a nd illogical. Success is more likely to be obtained by concentrating the efforts of inspectors, and the expenditure of money, on those counties where the di sease is kn own to ex ist, rather than by sq uandering them over the whol e count ry, and putting sheep ow ners in clean distr icts to the annoyance and expense of double dipping their sheep in order to cure them of a disease wh ich th e\' have not go t. Th e failure of the well -concei\'Cd regulations of th e Ministry to achieve any so rt of res ult is due to two factors :-. (i) The farm ers in sheep scab a reas do not take th e trouble to ro und up a ll their sheep at dipping time, and leave many scabby sheep be hind on th e hills. (ii) They do not dip efficien tly those th ey do collec t. T he sh eep are not properly imme rsed , a nd the dip is not ke pt a t p roper strength . Somctimes they do not even usc proper sheep dip a t all. The carelessness , a nel evasion of the duty of carrying out the regulations, is caused by the fact that ma ny of the men do not look upon sheep scab as a serious trouble and a disgrace to have on a farm . [n Australia and New Zealand , where people think in t erms of" shee p " a nd whe re th e soh 'ency of th p cou ntry depends on th e wool cli p . publi c

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THE VETERI1\ARY JOURNAL

opinion , a nd the farme r's own interes ts, lorced them to take ~ u ch drastic a nd co ncerted action that the disease was quickly stamped out. In this co untry th at is not so. H ere our wool trade is a minor matter, a ne! th ere is t oo little public opinion be hind th e official regula tion s to ensure their enforcement. This causes men with scabby sheep to hide them in st ead of reporting tllem; one farmer shi elds the nex t in stead of reporting him , a nd when the ~Iini st ry's in spectors d iscover cases of non-reporting, and of omitting to dip, th e fi nes imposed arc in sign ifi ca nt. In the last quarter of I ~)2R the :-linist ry prosec uted in 33 cases. In three cases adequate fines were imposed. In t he remaining .-)0 cases til e ave rage of thc fines was C:) 25. Rd . Tn Wa les the a verage line was t I 'I,;. 3e! , An other \'ery disquieting as pcct o f the sit uatio n is that out of / ·1;3 outbreaks in 1928, 22 per cent. were not re ported, hut we re discm 'e ree! by the inspecto rs. There is no doubt that many ot he r ('CL"e~ exis t which a re neither repo rtcd nor di sco \·e red . The poli cy of putting th e on us of ha\'ing shce p scab amo ng hi ~ sll ee p on thc fa rm er, and of punishing him fo r hav ing it on his farm \\'as tried in I ~l23 , and had to be withdrawn as it only in crcased concealment a nd co nscquently thc spread of the cIisease. During the past fiv c years t hc :-linist n ' has se nt teams of in spectors into the worst area, i,e, :\o rth \Va les, to lcc ture and assis t the loca l a uth ority in rounding up sheep and supe rvising th e clipping in each area, But succcss was not at ta in cd owing to the a pat hy a nd dcliberate obstruction of some of the local fa rm crs. \ 'e ry few attended the lcctures . When th e big drives of sheep were' orga nised, if scabby shcep werc fonnd, some of th e men would e\'e n tic th c shecp 's legs and leave th elll in the bracken so that th e v shou ld not he di scovered and th e owners blamed for not reporting, Wales. ami especi a lly !\orth \'Vall's, lI1 a ~ ' be th .. wo rst districts , but it would he unwise, a nd unfair, to blame th ose a reas a lon e. There are parts of Scotland and of Engl a nd a lso wh ere conditi ons a re nothing less than a disgrace , Certain clean and adjacent counties ha\'(; formed themselves into groups, a nd , although a lJ owi ng mutual unres tri cted movement of sheep, allow no sheep from outsid e to enter a m a rk ct in their group a rea unless douhle dipped or to hC' double dipped after arrival on private premises. But of late several cases have OCCUlTed when these protective barriers have been punctured , and sheepowners ha\'e fail ed to double dip sheep after they have been impo rted into the a rea. Nothing but severe fining of anyone importing sh ee p without double dipping them imm ediatelv on arrival into th f' clean area, ('an g uani th e clea n

HYSTEH.IA I

J

THE DOG

l69

areas adequately. The difficulty is to get all clean co unties to act in concert and on identical li ne '. The Minister is of opinion that his staff can be no more successful in t heir efforts t han they a rc at present, un til publi c opinion is sufficien tly ed ucated and aroused so that farme rs and magistrates help and support t he inspectors. In no other way can the seriousness of non-reporting, of inadequate rounding up of sheep, a nd of inefficient dipping, be hrought home to t he delinquent farmers . He would welcome and support gladly any s teps which the Royal Agricultural Society thinks desirable to take in this direction,

HYSTERIA IN THE DOG. By HENRY GRAY, M.R. C.V,S., London, S. W.s. THl S disease has attracted much public atte ntion during the past four or fi\'e years, and has given rise to much speculation as to its nature, causation and treatment. It is, however, no new disease, as I shall prese ntly show. It has no connection wi th distemper, but in rare cases of th e nervous form of distemper, dogs may s how hyste rical symptoms, as I have poin ted out in my article on dis temper in Hoare's System of Veterinary .1redic'i ne, a work publish ed two years before the Great War. Simi la r symptoms are som etimes obse rved in m aiden bitches when first com ing into (es tru m, or nine wee ks a fte r that period when they often come into m ilk. In puppies under six months, hyste rica l attacks ha\'e, in my experience, always occurred when they were let loose and all owed to race about in publi c gard.ens or parks, or even in the st ree t. It was observed more on a. unday or on a bright sunn y day, mostly after a spell of dull weathe r, during pring. Tot infreq uently these hyste rical attacks would recur, but rarely after six months of age. The hyste rical manifestations in these cases a re identical in expression, if not in causation , wi th the epizootic or widespread disease. DIAGNOSls.- Thi s hys teri cal malady is distinguished from the epileptifoml seizures a rising during the course of distemper by the fact that it comes on suddenly during exercise, and there has been no previous ma/m:se, or symptoms which usually precede the" fits " in distempe r. Again , one or two attacks may not be followed by others or there is perma nent recove ry after d~sinfestation of the ears. I n distemper the seizures a re usually followed by others, and in the end death takes place, or th e a nimal h as to be destroyed . In some