FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 12

FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE.

Further outbreaks of tliis disease have occurred in England. The owners of pedigree stock at Home and in the dominions are much concerned. As things are now, the dominions close their ports against all cattle, sheep, and pigs coming from Great Britain so long as there is any trace of foot-and-mouth disease anywhere in the country. Scotland secured a concession before the recent Carluke outbreak under which Scottish stock were accepted, provided that the shipment was made direct from a Scottish port. When, however, there has been foot-and-mouth disease in Chesire the ban has been enforced similarly on cattle bred in, say, Kent, on the principle that the whole of England and Wales is potentially an infected area. It has been pointed out that possibly arrangements could be made whereby

stock could be despatched from clean areas under strict safeguards against in- I fection. The suggestion is made that a safeguard acceptable to the veterinary authorities in the dominions might be provided by the establishment of two isolation farms —one in the north, the other in the south —where all export animals from clean areas could be sent for an agreed period. Stock from clean areas in the southern counties might be sent to an isolation farm near, say, Southampton, and stock from the North of England to another farm near, say, Liverpool. Primarily (says the Field) it is for the various breed societies to combine in offering some such safeguard to the dominion authorities. The cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture

would be essential to give official supervision. The Imperial Economic Committee has already shown its recognition of the pressing need of the dominions for more sound pedigree stock to grade up their herds and flocks, and provision has been made for defraying the cost of transporting pedigree stock to the dominions. The committee might perhaps be induced to show further practical interest in the matter by the making of a grant towards the establishment of two isolation farms, if this method of precaution proves acceptable to the dominions. It is suggested that Pirbright, the quarantine station of the Ministry of Agriculture in Surrey, might be put to good use again for the purpose of an isolation farm. The long sea voyage constitutes an effective quarantine period for most of the dominions, but an additional safeguard

would be a period of isolation under official supervision. It is to be noted that the South American countries, which are important markets for British pedigree stock, do now accept animals from Britain provided they come from an area free from foot-and-mouth disease infection. If the Argentine recognises the principle of clean areas, and if the arrangement has proved mutually satisfactory, it should not be difficult to in-

duce the British dominions to agree to admit cattle under similar precautions. The main fact is that England has the pedigree stock to offer and the oversea dominions have the farmers who wish to buy. The obstacles to a mutually satisfactory arrangement should not be insuperable. The position is one which presses hard upon pedigree stock breeders in the Home Country, while all the dominions from time to time require the

foundation breeding stock which Great Britain alone can supply. The trouble is that the noted “stud farm of the world” is so close to the Continent of Europe, where foot-and-mouth disease is allowed to run wild, that occasional visitations of the disease seem inevitable —until the scientists can indicate bow to prevent infection. Research into the origin and spread of the disease is a slow business, and until science can show a better way, there seems nothing for it but the ruthless destruction of all animals which have come into contact with infection. Nothing surely can be more tragic than to witness the funeral pyres of the many fine dairy herds which went up in smoke in endeavours to check the spread of the disease at the seat of the outbreaks. At the worst, it is only a very small area of the country which is infected at any time, and under careful precautions it is possible that the risk of allowing the pedigree stock trade to be opened with the dominions would not be so risky as anticipated.

What is claimed to be a record average weight for any large line of lambs killed in the Auckland province is reported from Westfield freezing works, to which Mr G. L, Laird, of Waiho'u, near Te Aroha. last week sent 2582 lambs, all of which were •straight off the ewes The first batch of 2182 made an average of 38.71 b.