PRECAUTIONS IN ENGLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 19 July 1935, Page 15

PRECAUTIONS IN ENGLAND

foot and mouth disease DISEASE NEARLY STAMPED OUT. WORK OF SPECIAL OFFICERS. An article of interest to New Zealand farmers relating to foot and mouth disease in Great Britain recently appeared in the English publication John Bull. It deals with the strict precautions taken to prevent the spread of the disease, the information being of some interest in view of the suggestion of removing the embargo on the importation of stock into the Dominion from Great Britain. The article states: — With devastating suddenness, one of the most mysterious and the most ruinous of all cattle scourges has broken out again in this country. A large part of the county of Dorset is under the “foot and mouth” ban. An ancient and prosperous market town closed down its sales on the day they opened. “Stand still” orders of the Ministry of Agriculture were posted everywhere, and more than 2000 cattle were immediately and compulsorily slaughtered because they had stood in the same market place with two little calves which were known to have come from an infected farm.

Certain sections of the Press have talked about “burning pyres” of cattle, the vast sums paid by the Ministry in compensation, and inferred that in “foot and mouth” disease the cattle owners of this, country are faced with an ever-strength-ening and unbeatable menace. The truth is almost the reverse. Great Britain alone of the principal European countries has succeeded in almost stamping out this fell disease. During the past two years for which figures are given--1933 and 1934—Great Britain had 66 outbreaks. But in the same period France had 27,386 separate outbreaks, Belgium 29,767, and Holland 47,829! Compared with these losses the damage inflicted in Britain is a “flea-bite.” Compensation here costs about £70,000 a year. In countries abroad it runs into millions.

We owe our fortunate position to the efficiency and vigilance of the veterinary officers who work under a special division of the Ministry of Agriculture. They are backed by strong and farreaching legislation, and it is pleasant to record one department which lias such spectacular successes to its credit. There are roughly 100 of them, and aided by the “vets” appointed by the local authorities, they are a kind of C.I.D. waging ceaseless war against an insidious and almost invisible criminal —the virus of “foot and mouth” disease. This handful of men guards £135,000,000 worth of Animals, the value of the meat and milk beasts in Britain’s agricultural industry. And they guard it well.

The first line of defence against this cattle scourge are the British ports, particularly those which give access to the Continental countries where the disease is practically a constant factor. At all these ports there is a “vet” inspector on perpetual duty. One by one these officers have closed most of the loopholes through which “foot and mouth” reaches this country. They are armed with a formidable set of regulations, and they are there to see that they are carried out. No live cattle may be imported here from any of those countries, and in 1926 the door was closed against carcases as well. That was a blow to the cheap meat importers, but it was a necessary move. This last measure came into being through a masterpiece of detective work on the part of one of the Ministry's inspectors. He traced a severe outbreak among Scottish cattle to a shipload of pork which had' . arrived at a North Country port from the Continent. Only one or two of the pigs in that cargo had had the disease, but one of those sides of pork had found its way into Scotland to the area where the disease subsequently broke out. That was enough. And it sealed the doom of the fresh pork trade from the Continent.

Every ship which comes from these foreign ports is watched. No ship may bring any cattle, sheep, goats or pigs into a British port from those countries, even if they are only intended for the ship’s larder. Recently a British vessel which came here from Antwerp stopped at a North Country port. The ship carried a native crew and, as is the custom, some sheep had been bought for the crew in Belgium and killed on board for fresh meat, while the ship was en route here.

The "vet” officer wanted to see everything which had been in contact with the animals, the pens, Miters, feeding vessels, etc. He found that some dungstained wood had been thrown ashore in tire British port together with some scrajs of deck timber. For that apparently trivial act the ship’s captain was heavily fined.

These extreme measures are adopted because our “vet” officers know full well what they are up against. Of all diseases known to man or beast "foot and mouth” is the most insidious and the most rapidly and easily spread. It is possible for a man to stand in a Cornish market within breathing distance of infected animals and then, going to a Newcastle market the next day, spread the disease there. He need not have been in actual contact with the animals. His clothes and boots will carry the infection. With a disease such as this and with Britain’s proximity to countries where it rages, the iron wall built round these islands by the Ministry’s inspectors is abundantly justified. They have, of course, a terrific task. Because of ease ■with which the disease virus can be carried, their vigilance must extend to other vehicles besides animals and meat which may come from prohibited ports. Even the packing in which Dutch bulbs arrive in this country are watched, and hay and straw packings in which glassware and other goods come from France and Belgium. The “vets” have proved that the virus has got into this country by these means. They have regulations which now say that such materials must not be brought into contact with animals, and must be destroyed as soon as goods are emptied from the cases.

Ministry officials from time to time track such packings to the consignees to observe whether regulations are obeyed. No importer knows when an inspector may descend upon him. If there is any evasion, a ruthless prosecution is immediately instituted. The special division take no chances and no animal or field-grown products which might carry the disease from Continental countries is overlooked. Esparto grass and similar materials for papermakers can only be imported under* special license. Hogs’ hair for brushmakers must be sterilised with disinfectant before it may be landed. Certain pork delicacies for the table may be landed, but they must be packed in watertight barrels which have been disinfected with carbolic acid. Inside this country the machiner. of detection set up by the Ministry is speedily and ruthlessly carried out. A farmer must notify the police immediately he even suspects the disease and isolate the sick animal. Any delay is on his own shoulders. The law presumes him to have knowledge of the disease. An excuse for delay is seldom accepted. In a proven case the farmer, is prose-

cuted, fined, and all compensation for his destroyed animals is withheld. Immediate destruction of all contact animals and isolation of the area is the Ministry’s policy. The ruthlessness of this action has been much criticised, but it has worked. A British farmer whose cattle are affected has little enough to complain about. The Ministry, in effect, compulsorily acquire the beats from him so that they can destroy them and he is paid their full worth according to an outside valuation. If any criticism can be made here, it is that the Acts do not include the payment of “consequential losses.” A dairy farmer, for instance, loses trade when his beasts are destroyed before he can get others ready to carry on supplies. Worse still, however, is the case of farm employees, who are thrown out of work by an outbreak of “foot and mouth.” Often, the first thing a farmer has done after an outbreak has been to sack his drovers and herdsmen or stand them off till the farm is restocked. He gets a fat sum in compensation but they get nothing—and the sack. Very soon, too, Britain may lead the world in the final extinction of this dread disease, as we have done with bur measures for limiting it. A research committee has been working for ten years to find a vaccine which will give immunity to cattle against “foot and mouth.”