IMPORTING STUD STOCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19962, 2 June 1928, Page 10

IMPORTING STUD STOCK.

Owing to the frequent recurrence of foot-and-mouth disease in the British Isles, there is at present a strict embargo on the importation of cattle, sheep and pigs into New Zealand from the United Kingdom. As only stud animals would be imported, the prohibition imposes a serious disability upon breeders and a more general handicap upon efforts to improve the quality of flocks and herds. This was recognised when the Minister of Agriculture announced last November that he expected to publish within a few days conditions under which the importation of stud stock might be permitted without danger. But, in less than a fortnight, advice was received of a fresh outbreak of the disease in England, and, declaring that the Government was not going to take any risks, Mr. Hawken stated that any relaxation of the embargo would be impossible. Since then the Board of Agriculture has drafted conditions which, in combination with precautions in Britain, appear to provide complete protection against the introduction of an infected animal. They have been considered by the conference of the Royal Agricultural Society, in which breeders' interests are no doubt fully represented, and it has declined to take the responsibility of recommending any modification of the embargo. There can be no question of the wisdom of its judgment. Knowledge of the disease is not yet sufficient to enable anyone to say positively that the most onerous regulations will not leave a loophole, and until investigators in Britain discover the explanation of the continual revival of the disease, in spite of ruthlessly drastic efforts to suppress it, New Zealand dare not take the risk of its introduction. The appearance of foot-and-mouth disease in any of the Dominion's great dairying districts would be an appalling disaster. At the least, it would mean the absolute isolation of the infected area, the relentless destruction of stud and herd cattle regardless of their value and pedigree, and, judging by English experience, even those measures would not guarantee the security of neighbouring districts. It is not unreasonable to hope that the efforts to eradicate the disease in Britain will eventually succeed. Until then, the Dominion had better preserve its immunity from this devastating plague lest any relaxation of vigilance should wreck its great pastoral industries.