SUSPECTED PLAGUE

Otago Witness, Issue 2955, 2 November 1910, Page 29

SUSPECTED PLAGUE

LONDON, October 26. Mr Burns, President of the Local Government Board, hae announced four deaths from suspected plague at Preston (Suffolk), between September 16 and September 29. There have been no cases since. A bacteriological examination showed that three dead rats were infected with plague. Stringent extermination and other precautions have been undertaken. October 27. Many dead rate have been found northward of Orwell. The source of the infec' : on is not known. October 28. The landing of a ship's rat from a foreign port or the washing ashore of the body of a plague-infected rat is the only explanation of the outbreak in Suffolk. A tremendous extermination of rodents is proceeding between the Rivers Orwell and Stour. Cats and hares, besides rats, have been found dead. (Received October 29, at 0.20 a.m.) Dead rats have been found at Clopton (Suffolk). Owing to the s.s. Himalaya having plague aboard, the Peninsular and Oriental Company refunded her passengers an their arrival at Bombay the sum of £15,000 as return fares to compensate them for the inconvenience to which they had been put-. The Local Government Board deprecates a plague panic. October 30. Twenty thousand rats have been destroyed within an area of 40 acres around the Ipswich docks. Many cats and rabbits were killed. The finding of many dead rats in the s.s. Suffolk caused a scare in the market, and colonial rabbits are practically unsaleable. Prices nominally are unchanged, .and holders are firm.