46 M. ADRIEN LOIR.- — LARGE DEATH RATE AMONG AUSTRALIAN 



NOTES ON THE LARGE DEATH RATE AMONG 



AUSTRALIAN SHEEP, IN COUNTRY INFECTED WITH 



CUMBERLAND DISEASE, OR SPLENIC FEVER. 



By M. Adrien Loir. 



[Bead before the Royal Society of N.S. Wales, June 3, 1891.'] 



I desire to direct the attention of the Royal Society to the 

 great percentage of deaths which result from this disease in the 

 infected portions of the Colony. What is the total amount of 

 losses occasioned by Cumberland Disease no one can estimate. 

 Even at the present time deaths caused by the malady are im- 

 puted to poisonous plants. The figures generally accepted as 

 correct are 200,000 sheep a year, and as the disease only affects 

 a comparatively restricted area of the Colony, this proportion is 

 sufficiently alarming, but is nothing as compared with the reality. 

 Pastoralists, for reasons easy to understand, do not like to admit 

 the losses they sustain, yet it is not necessary to have been brought 

 much into contact with them in order to become aware that the 

 mortality ranges as high as 25%, 30%, and 35% in certain parts of 

 the country. This proportion is enormous when it is remembered 

 that in Europe a death rate of 10% to 12% is looked upon as very 

 considerable; here however, a percentage of 30% is not uncommon. 

 Squatters frequently remark, " My birth-rate does not make up 

 for my losses by Cumberland Disease." I asked one of them the 

 reason, and this was his reply: — " Referring to the mortality from 

 the Anthrax Disease upon a property with which I was connected, 

 I have to advise you that the loss amounted one year with another 

 to between 30% and 35%, and as a matter of fact the increase 

 from the breeding flock of half the total number kept did not 

 compensate for the loss from this cause." Another squatter 

 informed me that the death rate in badly infected country is from 

 37% to 40%. 



