Conference of the New Zealand Veterinary Association. Opening address.

Abstract

Abstract Extract I think it most appropriate, that the New Zealand Veterinary Association should visit Nelson for its annual conference in its fiftieth year. While Rutherford tends to overshadow all other scientific names associated with Nelson, the older members of this Association will recall that, under the direction or Sir Theodore Rigg in the 1930s, workers at Nelson's Cawthron Institute showed that cobalt deficiency was responsible for the sickness in sheep seen in the, Sherry River Valley and on the Pakihi country of the West Coast. These studies were extended to Southland by Dixon, Askew and Kidson to show that the “Morton Mains disease” — a disease that prevented lamb breeding in the area — was also due to cobalt deficiency. Indeed, in many ways, this area can serve as a model of the ways in which farmers and their veterinarians can co-operate closely together to stimulate interest and progress in animal health and production.