FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3864, 3 April 1928, Page 12

FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE.

FRENCH CLAIM TO A CURE. LONDON, February 8. A quick and effective cure for foot-and-mouth disease is said to have been discovered by French investigators. The treatment has recently been subjected to severe tests in the Fontoise region of France, and, the results are said to have astounded certain leading French veterinary surgeons, who were originally very sceptical- of the methods. A case is quoted in which a valuable herd of cattle and several hundred sheep were affected with the disease. A wellknown Pans veterinary surgeon was consulted, and he predicted that heavy losses would be suffered before the attack was stamped out. It was, however, decided to try the new, remedy, and in seven days the attack was completely overcome, the total losses amounting to no more than an odd sheep or two. When-the attention of Colonel Walter Guinness, the- Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, was drawn to the report of the 'cure, he expressed interest, and said that the Ministry had received “tthonsands of alleged cures ” for foot-and-mouth disease.-

“ There is no mystery about a cure,” said Colonel Guinness. “In fact, in the majority of cases, the animals wo’uld recover in time themselves.” “But the policj’ of the Ministry is to discover some form of treatment which will produce effective immunity and prevent contact animals blazing the disease through the country. There are a dozen methods of treating the disease, but no country is able to do as we do —to practically stamp it out at its origin before it spreads. We are able to schedule every case and smother it before it can spread very far. If we could not do that, and the disease were allowed to get all over the country, then the question of a cure might be of primary importance. “ The efforts of the Foot-and-mouth Disease Research Committee are bein'? concentrated, therefore, on a remedy for reliable immunisation. The committee has found out much about the causation of the disease, but has not yet, unfortunately, discovered the preventive remedy.