SERIOUS OUTBREAK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 133, 2 December 1937, Page 35

SERIOUS OUTBREAK

FOOT-AND-MOUTH f DISEASE #

SLAUGHTER-IN-ENGLAND

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, November 10. Nine outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have- resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of animals in Great Britain during the past week. They are the most serious of the 43 reported this year to the beginning of November. Two theories have been advanced as to the cause, -one by Mr. W. S. Morrison, Minister of Agriculture. He suggested that, as the present series of outbreaks poincided with a violent out-. break on the Continent, infection might have been carried across the Channel to our fields. . ... Replying in the House of Commons to a question asking for information about the outbreaks, Mr. Morrison said that infection was-disclosed in a consignment of, 112 cattle exposed, at Stowmarket on November 4, one beast being then in the early stages of the disease. Owing to the very grave risk of the, spread of infection all cattle and swine in the market were seized and prompt arrangements were made for their slaughter, which was effected in about twenty-four hourst By that time other cattle in the infected consignment had developed the disease; 233 cattle, including 33 contact animals not exposed, in the,market, were destroyed and their carcasses incinerated, and; of 1242 swine involved 1160 fat animals- were sent to local bacon factories'for immediate slaughter- and salvage. The remaining pigs were slaughtered and the carcasses burnt. During 1937 2571 cattle, 4319 sheep, and.2645 pigs have been slaughtered, and the compensation payable to owners as a result of such slaughter amounts to £75,000. Foot-and-mouth disease has taken heavy toll of farm stock in the last few weeks, particularly in Norfolk and Suffolk. Grievous losses have been suffered by farmers whose animals have been slaughtered, and also by tradesmen arid others in many capacities by the abandoning of markets. Norwich has lost' its fat stock show tor, the first time in 60 years through such a cause. The^ official restrictions on movement of animals rendered this inevitable, but there, was bitter disappointment among those who had prepared beasts for exhibition. Mr. Morrison's theory of the cause of. the outbreak is supported by a Stowmarket auctioneer, who has stated that the outbreak there was believed to have been caused through birds carry-, ing infection from the Continent to the meadows in-.which-cattle had grazed. ' Another view is that 70, per cent, of the recorded "parent" of original autbreaks (as distinct from mechanical, spreading from these.sources) are due .to .the importation of chilled meat, cold cured.bacdn, 'and-other. raw animal products'from countries infested with the disease. The marrow-bones of Argentine meat and the rind of Polish and other Eastern European bacons are believed to be major sources of infection. Up. to-the. end! of-August this .year outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease on the Continent have been:—Belgium 344, France 12,892, Germany 44, and the Netherlands 440. Recorded outbreaks in Russia and Italy to the end of May are reported to be 27,161 and 172 respectively. Last year's outbreaks were: Belgium 18, France 524, Germany 371, Italy 5212, Netherlands 40, Russia 34,942, and 'Great Britain 67. MANY COUNTIES AFFECTED. Following the discovery of a further case of foot-and-mouth disease yesterday" the Ministry of Agriculture described- the- present outbreak as "possibly'" one of the most dangerous experienced in recent years." A decision to impose a standstill order was announced. This affects fourteen easttern and south-eastern counties in England, in which markets will be prohibited and deer-hunting forbidden. The administrative counties concerned are: London, Middlesex, East and West Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Bedford, Hert* ford, Essex, Norfolk, East Suffolk, West Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Isle of Ely, Soke of Peterborough, Lincoln (Lindsey, Kesteven, and Holland). Yesterday's outbreak was discovered on Carlton Hall Farm, near Lowestoft, where a fine herd of pedigree' Jersey and. Friesian cattle has been built up by Mr..W, P. Mobbs. There' are 55 dairy cows and 25 young: heifers and. bulls. All will be killed and their carcasses burned. Mr: Mobbs esti-. mated the value of his herd at £3000. Payment paid from the Ministry of Agriculture fund for compensation cannot reach this amount.'.;,. '