CHILLED BEEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 13

CHILLED BEEF.

DANGER OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE. A LESSON OF THE WAR. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 27. During the war, when imports of chilled beef from the Argentine almost ceased, foot-and-mouth disease nearly disappeared in this country. This statement was made by Lord Ernie in the House of Lords. The resumption of imports from the Argentine, he said, had coincided with outbreaks unparalleled in violence since 1892 Were any steps being taken, he asked, to warn the public of the dangers to which they were exposed? They should be told that chilled meat must be' treated with great care until it was cooked. The Argentine Government had invited a number of peers to visit that country to see for themselves the care that was taken to prevent the export of infected carcasses. A much better step would be to feed a herd of pigs on imported chilled beef to see if they developed the disease. • “ In that way,” observed the noble lord, dryly, “we should learn more from 20 pigs than from 40 peers.” He also suggested that chilled beef from the Argentine should be kept in quarantine here for 21 days. This, following the 21 days on the voyage, would be sufficient to cover the total possible period of life of the germ in blood. GOVERNMENT’S ASSURANCE. The discussion was begun by Lord Hindlip, who asked the Government whether in January, 1928, when the Ministry of Agriculture conducted an official investigation into foot-and-mouth disease in South America, the Ministy assumed that the risk of infection from imported meats lay in the bone and marrow, and there was no serious danger in t]je blood of the chilled carcass, and that consequently as a means of conveying the disease there was no distinction between chilled and frozen meat, and whether the Ministry still makes that assumption; and moved for papers.

The Earl of Stradbroke (Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture) assured Lord Hindlip that the Ministry was very much alive to the importance of the subject and to the work of the Research Committee, but none of the experi ments that had been made could be considered as verified until they had been tried over again and ratified by outside people. They were anxious to get beyond the experimental stage and find out not only how to check the virus, but, if possible, ascertain how meat could be imported into this country without being infected.