86 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jury, 1899. 
CHRONIC FORM OF TICK FEVER AT IN DOOROOPILLY. 7 
Two of the animals inoculated some 10 months ago had never regained their 
normal condition; each became gradually emaciated and extremely anemic, and 
ultimately died of chronic tick fever. Had these animals been grossly tick- 
infested, there can be no doubt that many persons would attribute their deaths 
to “tick-worry” or “ tick-poverty,” in consequence of the ticks sucking out 
the greater part of their blood. Asa matter of fact, as previously stated, ever 
since ticks have been in the paddocks, not one of the animals has been grossly 
infested—the greatest number of ticks that could at one time be picked off any 
animal would not exceed 100. — 
Another point of interest in connection with these chronic cases is that they 
were never in a good enough condition to draw blood from. 
In contradistinction to these cases, there are some 20 animals (steers and 
heifers) all of which have or eN recovered after suffering from an 
extremely severe attack of acute fever produced by inoculation, and which for 
the last 12 months have been continuously used for drawing blood from for 
inoculation purposes. Some of these animals have had as much as 400 o2.— 
equal to 23 gallons—of blood taken from them, and yet they have remained 
perfectly healthy and in good condition. 
RECOMMENDATION, 
The observations at Indooroopilly clearly prove that our winter months will 
not check the spread of the ticks or their accompaniment—tick fever. More- 
over, considering the numerous tick centres in Southern Queensland, and the 
many thousands of cattle that are still uninoculated in close proximity to these 
different centres, I am of opinion that every encouragement should be given to 
dairy farmers, graziers, and stockbreeders to have their cattle inoculated with as 
little delay and inconvenience as possible, and in a thorough and systematic 
manner. This can only be properly accomplished when the work of inoculation 
is under Government supervision. Therefore, considering that the process of 
preventive inoculation for tick fever (as initiated by me) has, wherever my 
instructions have been strictly adhered to, resulted in such an unqualified success, 
and where my directions have not been followed frequently resulted in failures, 
I sincerely request that you will urge upon the Minister the necessity of having 
this work pushed forward immediately in order to prevent the recurrence of 
such heayy losses as have occurred at Townsville, Mackay, Bowen, and 
Rockhampton before the system of preventive inoculation was introduced, 
INOCULATION AS A PREVENTIVE OF TICK FEVER. 
Mr. Faysuawr Gostiurne, Manager, Gin Gin Station, writes to the Chief 
Inspector of Stock, as follows :— — 
Gin Gin Station, 17th April, 1899. 
According to a request contained in your letter of the 5th April, I have 
the pleasure of submitting to you my observations gained from a purel 
ractical source on the effects of inoculation as a preventive of tick fever. 
To do this I cannot do better than give the history of the tick from the time it 
was first discovered on Gin Gin up to the present. I might state at once that 
I am a firm believer in inoculation; and late as I started operating on the Gin 
Gin herd, I have, to my mind, proved it to be a success. TI have inoculated 
about 6,000 head of cattle, and my notes were carefully made as each mob was 
operated on. When I say, “ Late as I started,” I wish you to understand that, 
like everybody else, I waited for the tick to come instead of inoculating before 
it made its appearance. My loss, when compared with that suffered on many 
other places, is small, and I feel certain that, had I taken the advice given me 
by Mr. Pound and inoculated before the tick came, my loss would have been 
less. ’ 
