WAR ON ANIMAL DISEASES

Southland Times, Issue 23381, 13 December 1937, Page 5

WAR ON ANIMAL DISEASES

FOUR-YEAR CAMPAIGN IN BRITAIN The new Agricultural Act inaugurates a nation-wide campaign to eradicate the diseases of animals and poultry in Great Britain. The scheme will involve the complete reorganization of the country’s veterinary services and bring them under the direct control of the Minister of Agriculture, who will establish a highly specialized national service of veterinary inspectors. The first stage in the campaign trill be the renewed fight to eliminate bovine tuberculosis. Considerable progress has already been made in this direction, and many herds of dairy cattle in England and Wales have been registered by the Ministry of Agriculture as free from the disease.

In preparation for the second stage, intensive research work is being carried out at all the agricultural colleges and institutes of animal pathology on such problems as the sheep tick, erysipelas among pigs, swine fever and paralysis in poultry. Although in Great Britain there is no longer any rabies, and glanders is also a thing of the past, there are still some animal diseases which are a danger to public health and some which seem to afflict human beings and domestic animals alike. Under the new scheme, the General Medical Council and the Agricultural Research Council will combine their efforts and pool their knowledge in the hope of making new advances in the treatment of both human and animal diseases.

The whole campaign, which is expected to last four years, will involve an additional charge on the Exchequer of £600,000 a year—but as the principal of the Royal Veterinary College estimates the present annual loss of British live stock through preventible diseases,at £14,000,000, it is probable that the campaign will result in an enormous saving to the nation.