CONFERENCE ON DISEASES IN STOCK.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4208, 15 September 1874, Page 3

CONFERENCE ON DISEASES IN STOCK.

On the subject of the proposed Conference at Sydney on diseases in stock, the Brisbane Courier of the 22nd instant observes:—“The deliberations of these gentlemen will not, of course, be limited to the consideration of the best preventive for pleuro-pneumonia. The still more dangerous plagues of rinderpest and of the foot-and-mouth disease are in the background. As yet happily, they are unknown here, and the embargo which, by common consent, has been placed upon the introduction of cattle from beyond Australasian ifeas, renders it impossible that they.» should at present make their appearance by the ordinary process of contagion. But it is scarcely probable that European stock will be permanently excluded. When the period agreed upon for the maintenance of the embargo has expired, we cannot expect that it will be renewed. It will then be necessary to take all needful precautions against the possible introduction of those justly dreaded diseases. Among these it would be desirable to secure the inspection of all stock at the port of embarkation in the United Kingdom. We should thus primarily obtain some guarantee that the animals, when shipped, were in a healthy condition. There would , then be the still further test of three months’ passage, during which the germs of disease, even if at first undetected, would surely make themselves known; and after arrival, if necessary, there might be further guarantee tests, so that it is certainly in our power to make ourselves pretty secure from any external sources of contamination. It is possible, of course, that they might be internally developed; but the magnificent climate of Australia, admirably fitted as it is for the rearing of stock under healthful conditions, renders this improbable, and, at any rate, we may very well leave all precautionary measures in the hands of the experienced gentlemen who are likely so soon to meet in conference at Sydney."