156 



Liver Eot in North Wales, 1920-21. 



[May, 



northward through Llangaffo to the Malldraeth Marsh, and up 

 to the vicinity of Holland Arms; (8) an adjacent district extend- 

 ing from near Llangefni to Llangadwaladr and Bodorgan. In 

 addition to these chief areas there were some 20 others in the 

 four counties, mostly of smaller extent. It is interesting that 

 in very few cases was the elevation greater than 800 ft., and 

 the majority of the most severe losses occurred below the 100 

 ft. contour. Strictly speaking, the mountains escaped, the 

 conditions there being unfavourable to a wide extension of the 

 host snail. Owing to the custom of pasturing young sheep 

 from the mountains to the lowlands during the period October 

 to April, there was a concentration of sheep on the worst in- 

 fected lands during that period, and many of these " tack " 

 sheep were infected soon after arrival, so that in this way 

 many upland farmers sustained heavy losses. For example, 

 one sheep farmer wintered young sheep on six different lowland 

 holdings, and four of these proved infective, causing the death 

 of about 300. Heavy losses continued up to the end of spring, 

 while deaths continued here and there until the late autumn 

 of 1921. So far, up to the time of writing (January, 1922), no 

 further fresh outbreaks have been reported, although a few 

 chronic cases exist. 



Losses due to the Outbreak. — On first taking over the work, 

 attention was given to gaining a general idea of the extent and 

 severity of the outbreak, and in getting the flocks away from 

 infected pastures on to the soundest land available, and under 

 treatment. With this end in view many farms had to be 

 rapidly surveyed, and farmers instructed as to procedure. In 

 some seriously infected flocks the disease was detected and the 

 sheep marketed sufficiently early to minimise the losses. In 

 many others the infected sheep were not sold until they had 

 become badly affected, and in such cases realised very low 

 prices, ewes purchased but a few weeks or months previously 

 at from £4 10s. to £7 10s., selling at from 30s. down to 2s. 6d. 

 each. Other flocks were allowed to die; or died with a rapidity 

 totally unexpected by men who were accustomed to the com- 

 paratively slow wasting associated with the usual " chronic 

 form of the disease. Indeed, these very rapid deaths while the 

 animals were still fat, were a marked feature of the epidemic, 

 and led to several prevalent ideas which had to be combated. 

 The first was that the disease was not Liver Eot at all, since 

 death was rapid and the accustomed symptoms did not always 

 appear. This was due to the fact that in many cases the sheep 



