July 2, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 513 



Safeguarding Farm Stock from Disease* 



(2) By Good Hygiene, 

 max henry, m.r.c.v.s., b.v.sc. 



The means by which the farmer may hope to minimise the risk of introducing 

 infectious disease into his stock having been outHned, attention must be now- 

 drawn to the serious losses which occur in New South Wales among stock, 

 particularly young stock, from both infectious and non-infectious complaints 

 through lack of attention to the principles of good hygiene. There is too 

 often a tendency on the part of the farmer and stockowner to regard 

 veterinary science as only capable of coming to his aid when stock are 

 already sick, forgetting that the most valuable part of veterinary advice is 

 that dealing with prevention, and that it is along these lines that the future 

 development of the science Avill be most marked. 



This attitude of the farmer is due to the fact that throughout the earliei' 

 years of Australian colonisation and settlement, stock practically looked 

 after themselves, and the question of good or bad hygiene never had to be 

 considered. But to-day, in the settled parts of the country — particularly in 

 dairying districts, on pig farms, in irrigation areas, and wherever stock are 

 under more or less confined and artificial conditions — the question of good 

 hygiene becomes one of the first importance. The prevailing opinion among 

 farmers appears to be that good hygiene is a kind of fad — bred by Science 

 out of Laboratory — but of no kind of use to the man making a living out of 

 stock. Nothing could be farther from the truth, though it is admittedly 

 difficult to say at what precise moment the observance of good hygiene puts 

 a fiver into a banking account. It is also argued that because stock thrived 

 in the old days under such and such conditions, they must do all right now. 

 To hold such opinions a man must have forgotten many things ; such things 

 as the' actual changes which have taken place in conditions, the greater 

 economic value of the individual animal, the totally difierent position as 

 regards disease, and the fact that as this country progresses, these changes 

 in every way will become more and more marked. It is wiser to look ahead 

 to what we have to do than to look back on what our grandfathers did ; and 

 it is of far more value to the farmer to understand what good hygiene means 

 than to possess any number of isolated and more or less correct ideas as to 

 the treatment of sick .stock. 



The treatment of sick stock is of value at long intervals — good hygiene is 

 of value at all times. Even in parts of the State where stock are running 

 freely in wide areas, certain aspects of the question, as will be seen later, are 

 of considerable importance. By good hygiene is meant the correct application 

 of those systems of stabling, housing, grazing, sheltering, grooming, clipping, 

 clothing, feeding and watering which are most conducive to the good health 

 and economic efficiency of the animals. 



