I move:—
That Seanad Éireann requests the Government, as a matter of urgency, to take all possible steps to eliminate the enormous damage being caused to our cattle by warble fly infestation.
This motion was placed on the Order Paper in the first week of March. A considerable period of the year has gone by since and to some extent the urgency of the motion is negatived for this year. However, I propose to deal with the motion on the lines indicated in the text and refer first to my reason for asking at the time that, as a matter of urgency, the Seanad should request the Government to do these things. My approach to the matter is entirely personal and is the result of the experience I had as a veterinary officer inspecting carcases after slaughter during that period in February when I, with others, were appalled by the prevalence of warbles and the damage caused to carcases, and especially to hides, so early in the year, in the month of February. Nobody could look at that damage without feeling that one should do everything possible to bring it to the notice of anybody and everybody who could do anything to secure a solution of the problem.
That is my introduction to indicate why I put the motion down as a matter of urgency then and I hope that, regarding it still as a matter of urgency even in June, the result of the debate will be to impress on the Minister and the Government the need for taking all possible steps to mitigate the damage which this infestation is causing to our cattle and consequently to the whole economy of the country.
I believe that the early prevalence of the warble in the hides this year and the consequent damage being so disastrous is due to the fact that we had a very mild winter after a very satisfactory summer for the country and for the people generally. It was a warm, dry summer and this fly was laying eggs on cattle, consequently there was a considerable increase in the infection of cattle. With the mild winter following and the warble developing prematurely, so to speak, we had so early this year this extraordinary prevalence of it in the hides. Again, it was this extraordinary prevalence and the damage being done which prompted me to put down this motion and by the efforts of the members of the Seanad to convince people in authority that it is a matter of vital necessity that some steps should be taken as quickly as possible to mitigate this damage.
For this discussion I suppose it would be necessary to give a short summary of the life history of the warble fly to show how he causes this damage to the unfortunate cattle whose hides he invades. There are two kinds of warble flies but I do not think that is material to this debate as, in fact, the results are the same and the damage they cause is equally extensive. Every Senator, be he city man or country man, will probably at some stage have seen cattle gadding in the summer and early autumn. Those members of the farming community will appreciate that it causes extensive irritation to cattle and a loss of progress in flesh and general effectiveness of the animal, whether it be for the production of meat or for the production of milk.
Gadding is caused by the buzzing of the warble fly in the vicinity of cattle. The fly does not sting or bite; it simply lays its eggs mainly on the legs and the quarters of the cattle. It is a curious thing that cattle are by nature apparently cognisant of the fact that this buzzing insect is an enemy which is going to affect him. The herds or individual animals will run wildly over fences into obstructions often causing serious injury to themselves in the wild rush to evade the striking of this fly.
The fly does seem to have some aversion to water because you will see cattle standing in a river or running towards water to stand in it. Normally that should not affect the fly in striking unless the water reaches beyond the parts of the animal's body in which lays its eggs, the hocks and thighs. Yet they can stand quite comfortably in water of a low depth, so it seems definite that the insect does not like to fly over water or in the vicinity of water. Naturally the instinct of the animal is to seek refuge by standing in water or in another place of refuge, the shade of trees. The warble fly likes to remain in the warm sunny atmosphere.
The warble fly has struck with disastrous results in the past year; the little grub that hatches out penetrates the skin and during the autumn and winter travels along by various routes until he finally gets to the predilection site which is along the back and loins of the animal. Every man who is used to the country or has seen any cattle will know that he can see in the late spring and early summer these big lumps, numerous warbles, on the backs of cattle, resulting from the grub that has developed from the eggs which the fly has laid during the previous gadding period.
That is the life history of the warble fly from the time it lays the eggs to the time when these repulsive larvae develop on the animal's back. As it develops it requires to get a breathing opening. It bores through the skin on the inside till it punctures completely through it and when this breathing hole has been made in the skin of the animal you will see on the animal's back nodules of pus and dried serum. People may think that this is terrible cruelty to the animals. Naturally we cannot record how cruel this is or how much pain the animal feels. The pain is not so much for the animal, but it certainly must be great discomfort apart from the other effect which it has in destroying the tissue of the back. I think the actual pain is not so great, because we know that the skin of the animal is not so sensitive. You know how animals can be beaten by sticks and pricked with the goads used in driving them. But people not accustomed to cattle would feel that the poor animal must have suffered intense pain by these numerous lesions along its back.
That is the history. The fly lays its eggs, develops the grub, and the grub gets out on the back and causes this destruction which is the subject matter of our discussion now. Having grown to full size it pushes its way through this puncture of the skin and falls on to the ground, be it grass, road or something else. One would think that there is such a chance of its dropping in the wrong place that the number of larvae that would subsequently develop into warble flies should be very small, but there is such a big number of larvæ that even a comparatively small percentage developing will provide numerous flies to carry on the generations from year to year.
I have brought specimens which I displayed in the anteroom during the day, and any Senator who has not seen them yet might examine them and see the damage caused to the hides. In this bottle I have specimens of the larvæ of these warbles, repulsive looking things, and one visual examination of these things might create an impression on Senators' minds that they would not forget when they come in contact with the problem during the years to come.
When the grub falls to the ground, in a short time, estimated to be something like two months, it develops into an adult fly and the process starts again. The fact that we have so many warbles affecting so many cattle to such an extensive extent this year indicates that they must be getting prevalent. Their effects would be more obvious if the weather were warm and sunny, but the continuity of the propagation of the species goes on and that is why I would like to discuss it in the Seanad so that some steps can be taken even during this period to lessen the damage that the attack of warble fly causes.
To come to the loss and damage done by these enemies of ours, as far as the farmer is concerned he does not realise the damage because he is only cognisant of what happens to his cattle during the gadding period. He may see his cows running for shelter under trees or in whatever pond or river they can get to, but perhaps he will escape having a casualty from an animal running into a gate or falling into a dyke. Unless he has experience of such a casualty he does not feel that this warble fly is doing him immense damage, and that is one of the objects of this discussion—to try to bring home to the farming community, through the Seanad, the fact that the injury, small though it may be to them, is indeed of immense damage when the stock travel to the other agencies—to the butcher, to the tanner and subsequently to the harness maker or the boot maker who utilises the leather got from his cattle. The farmer loses even through loss of milk, especially if there is a warm day. He will find there is a big loss of milk, and that there is a loss in the development of his young stock not easy to estimate—and of course again he may have loss through casualties.
When it comes to the butcher and the exporter the damage becomes very apparent. It was at this stage that I became aware of the disastrous results early this year. I have brought in specimens of the hide of a badly infected carcase. There are two exhibits—one hide in which the warbles have punctured right through, making holes like a sieve right through the leather, and the other a specimen of what we call blind warbles, where the warble has not pushed its way right through and has produced no puncture in the leather, but instead he causes defects in the texture of the leather on the inside and protuberances on the outside of the hide. When badly affected the hide is more or less useless for any manufacture.
Besides these two specimens which I have for Senators to look at there is further damage caused because an animal that is affected by the warble fly this year and is not slaughtered this year is further damaged. The lesions caused by the warble coming through the hide heal and that little puncture is mended, so to speak, during the remainder of the year if it does not get a second attack, which usually does occur; but those little lesions are healed by scar tissue and that scar tissue can be seen as defects in the hide. So you have defects caused by the puncture and the grub coming actually through, partial puncture by the grub, and even then the healing of the lesions after the parasite has passed through.
In all three cases there is immense damage done. I have got figures this year which I would like to mention. I asked a Dublin butcher what were the losses through the damage caused by warbles in his hides and he showed me a receipt for four first-class hides, or what should be first-class hides, from four heifers which he got.
The total of the four hides, according to the price of 1/- per lb., should be £11 6s. He received £7 2s. 3d., which is a loss of £4 3s. 9d. on the four hides or almost exactly a guinea a hide. That is an immense loss to be occurring and to be recurring from day to day and from week to week in the beef trade. The butcher individually was at a loss of four guineas, almost, on four hides. I took a note that one of the hides weighed 60 lb., so that the normal price would be £3; but the loss is averaging in those cases a guinea a hide.
The skin men have a gradation of price on the number of warbles affecting the hide. For first warbles, they pay 9d.; second warbles 7½d.; third warbles 6d. For a hide that is badly affected with the warbles the butcher only gets half the price that he should get. Instead of a 1/- a lb. he gets only 6d.
Later in the season, after about March, these prices were increased as follows: first warbles 10d.; second warbles 8½d.; third warbles 7d. Therefore, the skin and hide men increased the price by just about 1d. per lb. Senators will get a picture there of the immense loss to the butcher—and to the country, through the butcher—by the damage caused by this warble infection. Likewise, of course, the hides of animals that are commercially slaughtered in the factories will have a lesser value also.
Then I might refer to the damage to the carcase itself. We have developed a magnificent export trade of carcase beef now and it is a pity to see the results of warble infection on so many carcases. The warbles will not be on the carcase, as they will be adhering to the hide, but the result of the warble infection is quite apparent on the surface tissues of the back and sirloin. It causes a serous exudate or, in ordinary parlance, what might be called a scum on the surface and flesh and gives it a dirty green appearance. Once that is there, there is no satisfactory means of treating it. You just cannot pare it off or wash it off or sandpaper it off. Once it is there it has entirely interfered with the grading of the best nourished and the fattest animal. In that case again we are facing an immense loss through the damage caused to the carcases of those animals so affected.
I took a note here of the loss to the consumer. I am sure some Senators have had the experience, when tasting the nicest steak on his plate, of finding that the part that gives our steaks their reputation is really the fatty juicy surround, which is actually the fatty tissue from the loin of the beast. Some Senators at some time may have got from that little fat, which gives the steak its juicy flavour, a repulsively bitter taste. I have got it repeatedly, I know, and many Senators may have got it but did not know the cause of it. That bitter, nasty taste comes as a result of warble infection, where that flavour has remained even through the cooking. It gives it that nasty taste and anybody not knowing what it was would think the meat was rotten because of that flavour.
