CATTLE DISEASE
BRITISH RESEARCH REPORT. WTDE FIELD OF INQUIRY. A large field of investigation has already been covered by the British Agricultural Research Council, whose first report, for the period July, 1931, to September 30. 1933, was issued recently. The council was established by Royal Charter in 1931, and its members comprise eminent agriculturists and men of science. Among the most important inquiries carried out by the council was a survey of animal diseases. The toll taken by disease on our flocks and herds, it is stated, involves a direct loss of some millions of pounds annually, while the indirect loss is incalculable. Moreover, some of these diseases are dangerous to human life.
With regard to foot-and-mouth disease, while it could not he said with certainty that any preventive measures, such as an effective vaccine, were likely to be discovered immediately, such measures, based on the results already reached, were certainly a possibility of the future.
There was urgent need for further research on the widespread tuberculosis of cattle and for action in accordance with the facts already. known. It had been shown that a dairy herd could be freed from tuberculosis by systematic and regular testing with tuberculin of all the cows in it, and of those to be admitted to it, and the exclusion and segregation or slaughter of' all positive reactors, together with reasonable cleanliness and hygienic measures.
The idea that success in farming depends on long experience handed on from generation to generation is stated by the council to he erroneous. In a- survey of East Anglican farms, carried out by the Economics Branch of the Cambridge School of Agriculture, farmers occupying over 1000 farms were arranged in agegroups- An inverse correlation was found to exist between age and success as measured by profit and loss. The younger the age-group the higher were the average profits; the older the farmers the greater the average losses they sustained. The lesson seems clear,” the council states. “Agriculture, is now changing so fast that experience of past methods is loss useful than knowledge of new ones and the mental adaptability and courage necessary to try them. This result alone goes a long way to justify expenditure on agricultural education and research.”
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12442, 2 January 1935, Page 2
Word Count
372CATTLE DISEASE Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12442, 2 January 1935, Page 2
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