A CONSULAR REPUTATION

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 100, 30 April 1927, Page 9

A CONSULAR REPUTATION

The Argentine Consul-General (Senor H. Bidone) maintains that the Argentine variety of foot and mouth disease is distinct from that which is the scourge of the fanners of the Northern Hemisphere. There are- scientific reasons proving that it is milder and il caused by a germ which reproduce* only; its own variety, and not ■ the more virulent one found there. The origin of foot and mouth disease in the Argentine, where it was first introduced in the spring of 1889 through a lot of bulls imported from Prance, is so historical that discussions about its supposed varieties do not hold much in•terest. The system in Argentina of breeding the stock in the open "e»mp" (country) exposed to the weather and to the sun, the greatest enemy of ' the germs of disease, unquestionably gives it a mild form when compared with housed stock in the Northern Hemisphere, so that entire flocks and herds may sicken and recover without more inconvenience than a passing setback in condition of short duration. The fact remains that owing to the severe sanitary inspection and the practice observed' in all Argentine frigorificd, animals with foot and mouth disease are not slaughtered or even received. The most important point is, however, that it is not admitted,'neither has it been proved that frozen meat can be a carrier of the germ. The investigations made by the British Ministry of' Agriculture have proved the contrary; to be the case. '

Mr. H. R. Hassan evidently knew very little of the methods or conditions under which the livestock industry in the is carried on. The importation of Australian cattle in Argentina is prohibited at the present time. The suggestion of Mr. Hassan is a spiritual patriotism, but not a practical and commercial proposition.

The cable news in this l«n» accredited to "The Times" hag appeared In that journal, but only where expressly stated Is such, nesri tin editorial opinion of The liam,'-