DISEASE IN STOCK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17230, 22 December 1923, Page 12

DISEASE IN STOCK.

OUTBREAK OF FOOT AND MOUTH. GOVERNMENT POLICY OPPOSED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Oopyrigh.*, Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. IjONDON, December 20. Forty-six new outbreaks of foot and mouth disease occurred on Wednesday, of which thirty-two were in Cheshire. Compensation paid now’ totals £1.367,000, cattle slaughtered total 46,000. The continued spread of the plague is causing consternation among farmers, many of whom assert that the Government's policy of wholesale slaughter has utterly failed. They urge an alternative policy of isolation and treatment. A large and representative meeting of Cheshire farmers, held at Crewe, revealed cases w’here cattle condemned had been treated and cured before the overworked slaughterers were ablo to reach the farm, yet the Ministry of Agriculture refused to reconsider the policy of condemnation, and cattle would be killed and burnt to-morrow. Farmer after farmer agreed that foot and mouth disease could be cured if treated immediately They said that the pole axo was knocking the bottom out of the Cheshire dairy industry. Sir Stewart Stockman, Chief Veterinary Officer, Board of Agriculture, however, was not convinced, ho said that the period of immunity of a cured animal was short. It would contract the disease again and re-start the vicious circle. An elderly farmer retorted:—‘TTorty years ago slaughtering was not thought of, and the disease was cured.” An aged farmer, with the appearance of a Hebrew’ prophet, denounced the Government’s policy on grounds of cruelty. He cried: “Show' mercy and mercy will be shown to you. You cannot combat this disease because the Lord is not with you.” This disease has repeatedly swept across Europe from east to west; it reached England in 1839 and within the second half of the century, eleven distinct outbreaks occurred. For twenty years the country was virtually clear of the diseases, sporadic appearances being combated so promptly and vigorously that the spread of contagion was prevented. But in 1917 there was a very grave increase in the incidence of the disease on the Continent, especially in Belgium , it raged in Switzerland in 1920; and in 1922, in spite of all precautions, there was an explosive epidemic in Britain. The first case was reported in Northumberland; w’ithin ten days over 200 outbreaks had been reported, and so widely were they scattered and so prompt were the protective measures that within that period, the whole extent of country from Aberdeen to Bedfordshire had been scheduled as infected or suspected. The British practice is the ruthless slaughter of all infected animals, and the burning of their carcases, with absolute prohibition against the movement of stock within the affected areas. Compensation is paid to the owners of the stock destroyed, but it is recognised that this does not and cannot cover the whole loss, especially of pedigree animals representing the results of years of evolutionary breeding. It has been contended that the slaughtering policy is a serious handicap upon research to discover scientific means of arresting or mitigating the disease, but a departmental committee, which investigated the 1922 outbreak, endorsed that policy as the only effective means of controlling the scourge, j ITnfortunately, Britain is always open to contagion from the Continent. America and Canada have suffered from the disease and stamped it out, but it is still nrevalent in South America. It was introduced into Australia fifty years ago- but quickly eradicated.