“ORGANISED BOGEY”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 25, Issue 3760, 25 May 1936, Page 4

“ORGANISED BOGEY”

FOOT AND MOUTH COMPLAINT. SELF-INTEREST OF BREEDERS. Declaring that the foot and mouth disease “scare” was a bogey organised by established breeders in New Zealand, Mr Wj. M. Webster, of Massey College, in an address at Palmerston North on Friday traced the histdijy of tlhe disease. Mr Webster was in the employ of the British Ministry of Agriculture for some years, including a period in 1923, when a severe outbreak of the disease swept several British countries.

The great fear of foot and mouth disease wa|s due less to actual stock mortality than to the great economic loss consequent upon its outbreak, said Mr Webster. For instance, in Holland, where the disease was epidemic, as it was, indeed, in all Europe, it cost £1,500,000 or £2,000,000 a yejar. In Great 'Britain'the disease had been countered for the past forty years by a vigorous slaughter policy. The Ministry of Agriculture maintained a large staff of technical experts who, as soon as an outbreak was reported, gathered in the locality and at once slaughtered every clovenihtofed animal on the place. FATAL DISEASE. ' In the general outbreak that swept Cheshire, in 1923, 50 or 60 separate outbreaks were reported over a period of weeks, when, owing to a fatal mistake, infected animals from a saleyard were dispersed all over the country. Stocking Was forbidden for six weeks after disinfection of the farms, Which was undertaken with religious exactitude. After that the regulations were relaxed and farms could bfe restocked, with no menace of a recurrence of the disease. M|t- Webster asked what was the actual risk to New Zealand if she relaxed the enribargo against British stock. Milch had been said about the risks of virus being carried by a recovered animal, but a carrier could not reach New Zealand from Britain, and imports from Europe were not contemplated. The slaughter policy was too vigorous to make possible the esda.pe of a carrier, while the regulations at the port of export were so strict that any possible virus would have caused incubation before the period of quarantine—l2 days—had elapsed. There were also six weeks on the boat, -and a further period on Soames Island, so thlat the risk of introducing /the .disease to this country through stock importations was absolutely noA-existent. It was a bogey that was an unjustifiable scare. It was a deliberate scare organised by established breeders' iff New Zealand, whose attitude was that of a dog in tlhe manger, said Mr Webster.. He added that the Veterinary Surgeons’ Association of New Zealand, representing 95 per cent, of the profession, was unanimous in its opinion that the embargo should be removed, yet the opposition still persisted.