Life Sciences Commons^™

The Use Of Buffer Zones In Dingo Control, P C. Thomson

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

The aim of dingo control is to protect livestock, not to eliminate dingos from Australia's vast ininhabited areas. However, with labour costs rising, dingo control must become more cost effective.

In this article, P.C. Thomson discusses the "buffer zone" control strategy which involves removing dingos from a strip of country adjacent to stocked land.

Although variations of this strategy have existed for some time, detailed knowledge of dingo behaviour and movement patterns was required to ensure that the concept was soundly based. Much of this information came from a long-term study of dingos carried out in unstocked country and adjacent …

Dingoes And Sheep In Pastoral Areas, P C. Thomson

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Since 1975, a long-term study of dingoes in the Fortescue River area of northern Western Australia has sought to provide the detailed information necessary to devise efficient dingo management strategies.

Dingoes have been fitted with radio-transmitter collars, then tracked and observed from a specially equipped aircraft. Their movements, breeding, hunting and social behaviour have been monitered in the rugged, spinifex-covered ironstone terrain which represents typicaldingo refuge country, and in neighbouring sheep country.

Although the pastoral and agricultural industry have long recognised the need to control dingoes to protect livestock, particularily sheep, there is little published evidence about the type of …

Dispelling Some Myths About 'Dermo', J R. Edwards

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

There are a lot of misconceptions and myths about dermatophilosis, a disease which can kill young lambs, affect wool quality, make shearing difficult and make sheep susceptible to fly strike.

One misconception is perpetuated by the incorrect use of the name mycotic dermatitis, which implies that a fungus causes the disease. This is not so.

The disease is caused by the bacteria Dermatophilus congolensis, which attacks the sheep's skin and eventually forms a lesion or scab in the wool, and so is better called dermatophilosis, 'dermo' or 'lumpy wool'.

Veterinary Epidemiologist at the Albany Regional Office, J.R. Edwards, discusses …

The Bush Tick, R B. Besier

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

A newly discovered livestock parasite has focused attention on farms in the Walpole district in the south-west of Western Australia. Ticks submitted to the Department of Agriculture in December 983 were identified as the bush tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis. An intensive campaign to locate areas of infestation and to limit spread was started in January 1984.

The bush tick is a pest of livestock in some areas of New South Wales and Queensland. It is important in a narrow coastal strip from Sydney to Brisbane where total summer rainfall can exceed 1000 mm. In this area heavy tick infestation causes …

New Developments In Footrot Control, R B. Richards, L. J. Depiazzi, R. V. R. Gwynn

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

The eradication policy for footrot in sheep adopted by the Western Australian Department of Agriculture has produced an overall decline in the number of properties with the disease.

Our knowledge of the disease has improved substantially as a result of the research conducted at the Slabany Regional Veterinary Laboratory in recent years. Laboratory tests now sssist stock inspectors and veterinary officers to distinguish between different forms of footrot and to quarantine and eradicate accordingly.

The recent discovery of more effective foot-bathing solutions by officers of the Victorian Department of Agriculture will greatly assist further eradication procedures.

Western Australia's sheep industry …

Protecting Off-Shears Sheep In Adverse Weather, T M. Ellis

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

In January 2982 in the Narrogin-Darkan area of Western Australia, about 14,500 sheep up to 40 days off-shears died after a 48-hour period of heavy soaking rain that followed a thunderstorm three days previously. An estimated 100,000 sheep died throughout the South-West at the time.

P. G. Buckman - at the time Department of Agriculture District Veterinary Officer, Narrogin - surveyed 17 properties in the area. He found that losses in unshedded sheep 0 to 40 days off-shears ranged from 0 to 84 per cent of sheep on the property with an overall average of 27.9 per cent. Rainfall in …