The Rural Voice, 1978-02, Page 22Advice on Farming
Disease task force
battles disease
outbreak
In the winter of 1952, an eastern
European immigrant arrived for work on a
Saskatchewan farm. A sausage which the
immigrant brought with him from Europe
was discarded into the livestock feed. The
result was Canada's worst -ever livestock
epidemic. The sausage contained foot and
mouth virus.
The damage caused by that one sausage
totalled about $1 billion. Agriculture
Canada had to slaughter 1,342 head of
cattle, as well as hundreds of swine, sheep
and goats. Canada suffered huge export
losses.
"Fortunately, it was winter and the
disease did not spread as rapidly as it
would during warmer weather. The entire
Canadian livestock industry might have
been severely damaged," says the recently
appointed chief of a new Emergency
Disease Eradication Organization for
Canada, Dr. D.J. Skinner.
Dr. Skinner, a leading authority on
contagious foreign livestock diseases, will
head a nation-wide team of veterinarians,
Iogi:,tics experts, environmentalists and
epidemiologists, ready to contain and
eliminate livestock disease outbreaks.
Prior to his appointment to the task force,
Dr. Skinner was chief of the named and
exotic diseases section in Agriculture
Canada's Health of Animals Branch.
"With the increased number of people
travelling abroad, it's only a matter of time
until we have another serious outbreak,"
Dr. Skinner says.
"Fortunately, most travellers from
abroad live in cities. If they get through
Canadian Customs with imported meat,
the chances are good that any leftovers will
wind up in a city waste disposal site, and
not in livestock feed. Some day, however,
an infected piece of meat may find its way
to a farm. Some of the more serious foreign
diseases spread like wildfire."
When a disease such as foot and mouth
breaks out, Dr. Skinner's group will
immediately set up a 10 -mile quarantine.
All infected animals will! be destroyed.
Dr. Skinner will organize the training of
two emergency task forces, one in Western
Canada, and one in Eastern Canada. Each
task force will be a reserve force, similar to
the militia. Dr. Skinner will work full-time
on the force, but others will work
part-time, or when a disease emergency
occurs. Veterinarians will take on their task
force work in addition to their regular
duties and no additional staff will be
required.
The Ottawa -based organization will also
monitor exotic diseases abroad, through
liaison with international organizations. It
will stay in close touch with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's disease
centre in Washington.
British -born Dr. Skinner, after spending
10 years in disease control in Kenya, joined
Agriculture Canada in 1965. He returned to
Britain in 1966 and helped fight the
devastating outbreak of foot and mouth
that swept through that country in 1967.
"At night the country skies would be
bright with fires. Huge piles of livestock
were burned. In one day we found 50 farms
with foot and mouth. Farmers has to stand
by and watch their life's work. their
cherished breeding stock, going up in
smoke."
The main diseases to be watched for now
are foot and mouth. hog cholera. swine
vesicular disease, rinderpest. and Newcas-
tle disease.
"In 1974 someone smuggled a pet bird
into California, and it had Newcastle
disease. The bird spread the virus to a
poultry farm, and soon there was an
epidemic. In all. 12 million poultry were
destroyed from 1.340 flocks. That outbreak
cost about $56 million."
Dr. Skinner notes that the same type of
outbreak could occur in Canada's
poultry -producing areas.
"You can see why Agriculture Canada
has inspectors at all major air, road, and
sea terminals. It also shows why there's
need for a task force to act quickly when an
outbreak occurs." Dr. Skinner sans.
Perth farmer makes
alfalfa a cash crop
Few farmers think of alfalfa as a cash
crop but a Tavistock area farmer finds it a
valuable addition to his crop rotation
program.
Ellard Lange grows four tons per acre
(dry matter) of alfalfa and sells it to St.
Clair Grain and Feed company which
harvests the crop and sells it as alfalfa meal
pellets.
For Mr. Lange the crop has two
advantages. One is that he has a good sod
crop to add to his crop rotation. The second
is that he doesn't have to worry about the
harvesting of the crop. The pure Saranac
crop was seeded in 1974 ani has yielded
about three cuts per year, the final cut
being made in 1977 on August 28.
Mr. Ellard fertilizes heavier than
normally recommended in order to make
up for the three cuttings a year. A regular
application of potash is essential.
The gross return from an acre of alfalfa
was about $100 per acre in 1977. Costs of
PG. 22. THE RURAL VOICE/FEBRUARY 1978.
fertilizer amounted to $10-$12 per acre and
a similar cost was encountered in the initial
seeding down process.
The Lange farm was also used in 1977 to
determine the feed value of an acre of
alfalfa. The three cuts taken from the 45
acre crop were weighted. moisture tested
and tested for protein. A dollar value was
then put on the crop at an average of 3.8
tons to the acre.
The results of the test indicated that it
would require 2700 pounds of soybean
meal and 2700 pounds of grain corn to
make up the same crude protein and total
digestible nutrients (TON) produced by an
acre of alfalfa. The cost would be $384.
An alfalfa yield of 3.8 tons, dry matter
100 percent. has crude protein of 1400 and
a TDN of 4.200.
Corn sileage at a yield of 15 tons per acre
with dry matter of 35 per cent and crude
protein 840 has a T.D.N. of 6.720.
A grain corn yield of 100 bushels to the
acre at a dry matter of 86 per cent and
crude protein of 482 yields a T.D.N. of
4.368.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food's
Perth office say that there is a strong
feeling that alfalfa is a neglected crop.
There are numerous examples. in the
county of startling results by farmers who
lavished as much attention on Alfalfa as
they would normally give to corn.
Crop specialist Pat Lynch points out that
alfalfa is a cheaper crop than corn
projecting the 1978 cost of alfalfa at $172
per acre compared to 5211 for corn.
Dim lights help
in chicken production
The dim lighting of big -city bars is said
to be relaxing to their clients. It creates a
subdued atmosphere.
But for chickens too?
Fred Proudfoot, head of the poultry
section at Agriculture Canada's research
station at Kentville. N.S.. has found that
dim lighting is conducive to fast growth
and lower energy demands by broiler
chickens.
In tests at the research station, light
intensity was reduced from the normal
daylight level to one-tenth of a foot candle
over a three-week period. In layman's
terms. one tenth of a foot candle stops
humans short as they enter a broiler house.
Eyes become accustomed to the darkness
in about 15 minutes. Then, birds and
feeders are discernible. although not clear.
"We've found that this low -light
regimen has several beneficial effects on
the birds," Mr. Proudfoot says. "they are
subdued and there is much less conflict.
They perform better because they aren't