IMPORTATION OP STOCK.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4939, 14 June 1887, Page 2

IMPORTATION OP STOCK.

the danqerof toot and mouth ■•••■•' ■• Disease.:'..:■; ■

Everyone, at all familiar with'diseases of stock has atleasti read of the ravages caused .by.the above disease. For our own parts 'we ! have had many opportunities of inspecting stock suffering from this loathsdmo disease/ Previous , to'■the'year 1864, comparatively little was known of this particular disease amongst c&ttle: So much may be gathered from 'the 'fact that 'when the Parliament of the day had under its consideration'the'passing of two Acts, viz., "The Cattlfe DiseasePreventionßill,',' and " The Cattle Importation -Bill," it was not considered advisable to , include foot and mouth diseases in .the schedule of contagious .or infectious diseases, for the'reason'that the theory prevailed amongst a large numbePof cattle ; owners'that •'this particular affection was inevitable •at some stage or '• other in the life of the animal, and there - fore the sooner it was over the better. ■ The Act referredtq 'was therefore only applicable to 'cattle plague"-(or rinderpest), pleuropneumonia, she.ep pox, and glanders. This Act'h'ad'notbeeniong in force , 'when foot \ and mouth disease assumed a most remark- \ able ' development' which : continued with more bi' Ifess virulence for several years afterwards.- i. The life history of this plague is not fi-Uy understood even now. The disease has been known to make its appear.auce in" quarters previously 'apparently clean j where 'the only solution of , the difficulty as to the origin of' the outbreak seemed to fayb'r ,thei contention that 'the germs of the clesease Tiad been in the, air and owing to some favorable atmospherio conditions the germs took root and- the disease appeared. In.'support of this theory camo the .outbreak of the disease referred to as haying taken place in England in 1869. It was a remarkable'fact that this circumstance was coincident with the ' malady assuming' .an epizootic form on the continent, ; and that the outbreak in" England was owing to the.'importation of diseased animals from abroad. An official enquiry, however, ■ did not ' confirm. this opinion. The experience of .the last sixty years has shown that periodical - outbreaks of the disease '.'.va. ,.,its. epizootic form have occasionally'occurred; At no time was the disease more rife.than in 1839-40, or about three years previous to foreign cattle being: allowed to be imported. Our contention is 'thiit it is not necessary for healthy animals to be placed in contact with diseased ones to insure infection.' The fact of theprcsenoe of diseased animals in a district seems from, all the evidence wo can collect to be sufficierfit to promote an outbreak under certain conditions of the atmosphere ; hence it is that so much has to bo feared from the introduction .of this disgusting malady. • In further support of this germ theory we may. refer to a case which occurred at \ the Ebyal Agricultural Show at Battersea .some .years ago. ,'Some of the foreign cattle "were found to be affected by foot and mouth disease. It was observed that a change.of wind, took place, blowing, from, the infected yards the clean; and immediately, numbers of the English., stock were attacked, and several of them died. Other instances of,the infection having been transmitted from one 1, pasture to another, by the evident agency of the winds only, are on record.

Of course it is admitted on all sides that

the most fertile of all mediums for tha spread of this' disease is' found in the.iin- "— portatio'n .of stock from foreign countries, their' introduction amongst large numbers ,of cattle at the market, and their subsequent., transmission by rail, and road throughout the country. Jbot-aud-mouth disease is not remarkable for its fatal results on stock, as only a small percentage of those attacked finally siccumb; but then each "animal requires individual attention, as the poor brutes areunable to move about in quest of food and •water. These must be supplied as well as the recognised specifics, and lacking this attention, the mortality would be enormous. If the loss,by deaths are not usually very great, the loss' in other ways is, as far aa Great Britain' is .concerned, incalculable. The greatest, mortality occurs amongst young, stock, which are usually too weak to resist.the effects of tie disease on'liieir vital powers. The ; 'principal loss arises from the loss of condition of the. animals attacked, which means at least a season's keep, or.the loss qf progeny,in the case of breeding animals. The loss from cows casting their calves, and /by the death of calves from cows which have been attacked, is one of the. most serious features of the disease.; Another, perhaps, as;Berious if not more, so; is £ha liability of stock to recurrent attacks.. -■■ . It is a popular error to suppose that foot and mouth disease confines its attacks principally to honied cattle. It attacks sheep, pigs, and poultry. Sheep suffer to a remarkable extent. It is recorded that in, 1,838 and 1840, when this disease was rampant in England, it was no unusual occuiTonoo for,the yardmen, in sweeping , the market-place, to collect basketful-? of the hoofs of sheep and pigs, which had bocn cast oif ..during the day. It may here be _ mentioned that this disease made its appearance in Britain m 1839. And it is strange that the first outbreak" should ha-\ o been, perhjejpfc, tho snobt sovero which lias vifaited that eduntiy binco. Tn poncluding these lemurks it may bo well to note a, few features of importance) contained f&ereuV First, then, tlut foofc

md-mouth disease is contagious and infecious; that..animals affected require indiddual attention, otherwise the mortality vould /b$ enormous; that once it has ibtained it footing in the country it is quesionable whether it can be ontirely oxterninatcl; and that infection must come irom diseased animals or from material yhich has beon in contact with tho disease. [t does not'appear tliat the retains its ritality for any greafc length of time—at east not to so great an oxtent as has been ;ho case in that of pleuropneumonia. The irdinarjr period of incubation in the case of :oal and dam is said to be three days. It is jherefora not nearly so insidious as pleurowoinnonja. It is, nevertheless, to be kept it a distance by overy raonais at onr comnand.—Christchurch "Weekly Press.