FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 219, 15 September 1928, Page 22 (Supplement)

FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE

DANGER FROM ARGENTINA During the war, when imports of chilled beef from Argentina almost ceased, foot-and-mouth disease nearly disappeared: in this country. This statement was made by Lord Ernie in the House of Lords recently. The rc>uniption of imports from the Argentine, he said, had coincided with outbreaks unparalleled in violence since 1892. Were any steps being taken, the speaker asked, to warn the public of the dangers to which they were exposer!? They should be told that chilled meat must be treated with great care until it was cooked. The .1 ig'.-ntiue Government had invited a number of peers to visit that country to see for themselves the care that was taken to prevent the export ol infected carcases. A much better .-.tcp would be to feed a herd of pigs on importer! chilled beef to sec if they developed the disease. “In that way,” observed Lord Ernie drily, “we should learn more from 20 pigs than from 40 peers.’ He also suggested that chilled beef irum the Argentine should be kept in quarantine here for 21 days. This, ioiiowing the 21 days -on the voyage, would le sufficient to cover the total possible period of life of the germ in blood. ’ ’ The discussion was begun by Lord IHualip 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 Mini.-tiy assumed that the risk of infection from imported meats lay in the bone and marrow, and there was no serious danger in the blood of the chilled caicase, and that consequently as a means of conveying the disease there was no distinction between chilled unci frozen meat, and whether the Ministry still makes that assumption; and moved for papers . The Earl of Stradbrokc, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, assured Lord Hindlip that, the M?ni.*lry were very much alive to th? impcrtance of the subject and to the work of the Research Committee, but none of the experiments 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 oxpci'mental stage and fiad out not only how to cheek the virus but, if possible, ascertain how meat could be imported into this country without being inf ceded

Among the curious regiment pets belonging to units of the British Army at different times have been a chimpanzee, an ape, a lion, a sea-eagle, a cheetah, a black bear, and a lamb. Irish bones mend better than English bones, according to a police surgeon, his theory being that the calcium in the potatoes, so much eaten in Ireland, strengthens the bony structures. Inside the pedestal on which Cleopatra’s Needle stands in London are several jars containing British coins, a railway guide, a number of children's toys, copies of newspapers, and 1 a map of London.