Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the administrative procedures for controlling danger to man through the use as food of the meat and milk of tuberculous animals.

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Tuberculosis

Date:: 1898

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the administrative procedures for controlling danger to man through the use as food of the meat and milk of tuberculous animals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

168/502 (page 128)

$Mr case in court, and we wanted more evidence, we would C. Scott, C.E. call them all in. . 2917. When the carcases are seized or reported, ai*e 28 Jau. 1b97. th(J,, destroyed ?—In regard to all that we have brought into court, with exception of a few in the first year, orders have been obtained and the carcase destroyed. In the first year there was a magistrate, an old gentleman, a stipendiary, who held that it was monstrous to condemn an animal for such a thing as tuberculosis, and who would not make an order. 2918. 1 suppose as a matter of fact, there is a great deal of excellent meat destroyed ?—As far as a person not an expert can say by looking at it, some of the meat is excellent in appearance. 2919. What is your return of the number of car- cases slaughtered in slaughter-houses outside the city, as compared with those slaughtered in the other slaughter-houses ?—I have had that estimate made in two or three different ways, and I have also, practi- cally, the estimate which has been made by the butchers themselves ; I also adopt, as a basis, the fact that Edinburgh, which has a smaller population than Belfast, passes about 27,780 through the slaughter-house. I estimate that in the case of Belfast, 28,000 carcases should go through the slaughter-houses every year. 2920. You take Edinburgh, I suppose, because there are no private slaughter-houses there ?—Yes. I also check it by our own returns as far as we can make them, and, as I have said, by the butchers' estimate. 1 consider, roughly, that more than half of the meat used in Belfast does not go through the public slaughter-house, and, therefore, is not, practically, inspected. 2921. Then, I suppose, that in your opinion, the people of Belfast consume a certain amount of meat which is unfit for food ?—I should say, judging by what we do at the public slaughter-house, that the people of Belfast must be annually eating more than 83 carcases of unsound or unwholesome food, and that 41 of those would be tuberculous—that is, taking them at the same ratio as we find prevails at the public slaughter-house; but I think the ratio should be higher, because the tendency would be to take the diseased animal to a slaughter-house outside and not to bring it to us at all. 2922. Has this question of the outside slaughter- houses been before the Belfast Board of Guardians ?— It has been both before the Belfast Board of Guardians and before the Belfast Public Health Committee, and deputations have met and discussed the matter. The board of guardians took a peculiar view of it; they said We cannot inspect these places unless we get powers to license these slaughter-houses. Then in the new Act, that is the Act of 1896, there is power given to rural authorities in Ireland to get urban powers, and the Belfast Board of Guardians now have had an inquiry sitting to get urban powers ; and in future they will have the power of registering slaughter- houses within the limits of their jurisdiction, but they have not had it up to the present. 2923. Without that extra urban power, meat inspection in a town must be more or less of a farce, would you say ?—Outside the city it was a farce. 2924. As conducted at present in Belfast it comes to this, that half the meat consnmed within the town is inspected efficiently, and the other half practically goes without inspection ?—That is my evidence. 2925. I think you said there are five licensed slaughter-houses within Belfast ?—There are. 2926. That is besides the abattoir ?—Yes, we have reduced them from 30 to 5. They belong to rather the better class of butchers, and even though those 5 slaughter-houses—I want to draw your attention to this—are inspected twice a week, we have never made a seizure in them for tuberculosis. 2927. I suppose these butchers are particular where they buy their stock ?—I should say they are. They are about the best class of butchers in the town. But I hold that you cannot inspect meat in a slaughter- house, unless the inspector or superintendent is there to see the meat when it is killed and before the butchers have dressed it, perhaps, and removed the evidence of disease. 2928. Is there any importation of foreign meat into Belfast ?—There is, but I cannot get any figures for it. The foreign meat imported is meat purchased chiefly in Liverpool and probably in Glasgow and sent over by the ordinary cross-channel steamers. I could not give you an estimate of that. 2929. Does that undergo inspection ?—-I do not know of any inspection. It comes into the town as dead meat, it is landed at the quay, and carried to the butcher's shop. There is no inspection of it at all that I know of. 2930. We have been told that a large number of the carcases slaughtered for consumption in Belfast consist of old dairy stock ?—That is a fact, but it also could not be anything else, because the vast majority of carcases that go through the slaughter- house, say upwards of 90 per cent., are cows that have been used for dairy purposes. When that fact is taken into consideration you will see that you could not have anything else. 2931. Ninety per cent. ?—That is the estimate that I have, that 90 per cent, of the carcases going through the Belfast slaughter-house have been dairy cattle. 2932. Of course that is a class in which you would expect to find the larger proportion of tuberculosis ? —There is a good deal of difference of opinion on that subject, but I should think so myself. 2933. Are we quite right in taking that somewhat startling statement, that 90 per cent, of the beef con- sumed in Belfast consists of old cows ?—I could not say that. I said that about 90 per cent, of the carcases going through the slaughter-house were carcases of cattle that had been dairy cattle. That is ! the information I have. 2934. Have you any reason to suppose that the same proportion would be observed in the other J slaughter-houses ?—I cannot give you any information | about that, but probably it would be much the same. 2935. Who are the consignors of these carcases ?— ! It would be the local butchers that send these carcases into the slaughter-houses. 2936. Would they be bought in the neighbouring j country ?—They would probably be bought in the fairs around, and it may be that the butchers, who usually have farms of their own, fatten them up a J little before they are brought in. 2937. I think you have told us the number of carcases seized and condemned in recent years ? \ Yes, 1 have handed in a table which gives that !] information for the last nine years. The fact is we I have been increasing our strictness, but if we became any stricter we probably would be boycotted alto- gether, and would drive the trade away from the slaughter-house entirely. Last year 41 carcases were 3 seized for tuberculosis. 2938. I suppose if compensation were given for carcases condemned, the butchers would be reconciled to the slaughter-house ?—If compensation was given the butchers would have no inducement, I believe, to go outside, that is it is more convenient for them to use the public slaughter-house if there was not ! this fear of animals being confiscated, as they . call it. 2939. Now, turning to the milk supply, what is the system of inspection there ?—The only inspection we have for milk would be the inspector taking f samples of milk under the Food and Drugs Act, which would be sent to the city analyst, but they would be no criterion whatever that the milk had not tuberculosis in it. We have practically no inspection to ascertain whether the milk is affected with tuberculosis. 2940. But you have powers of inspection of the cow sheds and dairies ?—Yes. We have one inspector half time, and another inspector whole time. They inspect the cow sheds to see that the regulations are carried out; but practically they do not inspect the$