[Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Chesterfield Borough.

  • Chesterfield (England). Borough Council
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Chesterfield Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    shire, in which capacity it had continued since 1940, and control of the premises reverted to the Borough Council. The Council can look back with justifiable pride at the contri- bution the Abattoir has made to meat requirements of North East Derbyshire during the last 14 difficult years of control, and it is very gratifying that this has been recognised by the Ministry of Food. Naturally a much heavier burden has been placed on the staff working at the Abattoir during this period, but this has been undertaken willingl}^ and with the same standard of efficiency which has become the accepted practice since the Abattoir has been in being. I would like to pay tribute to the Meat Inspectors for the part they have played as members of the team, and would couple with this an appreciation of the helpful co-operation of the Officials of the Ministry of Food with whom we have been working in close contact for such a long time. Lessons can be learned from the direst emergencies and possibly the most important one in this connection is the value of the moderate concentration of slaughtering in modem and well equipped Abattoirs, both from the point of efficiency and the saving of man- power. It is somewhat regrettable that the moderate concentration could not have been continued into the period of de-control, rather than to revert to what were considered from a Public Health view point the less satisfactory pre-war conditions. The Borough Council having proved that the facilities available were adequate, decided during the year that all slaughtering in the Borough should be centred at the Abattoir, and in consequence the tv/o remaining private slaughterhouses in the Borough, which although not in use, had been kept alive” by annual re-licensing, should be closed, and the Ministry of Food later supported this resolution. As was expected, the number of animals slaughtered in the Abattoir decreased after de-control, but not to the pre-war level, for the larger wholesalers continue to supply dead meat to the areas beyond the Borough boundar3^ In all a total of approxi- mately 58,900 animals were slaughtered in the Abattoir which were all inspected, together with 54 pigs which were killed on private premises for home consumption. This inspection resulted in the condemnation of approximate!}' 95 tons of meat and offals found to be diseased, or otherwise unfit for human consumption. This represents a considerable decrease in the weight of meat and offals condemned on the previous year, the decrease being most marked since the retmii to free trading. This is of course a natural sequence of the return to normality, when the meat salesman is able to supply the higher quality demanded by the consumer. Appendix 20 Tables 1 and 2 gives the number and types of animals slaughtered and the incidence of disease affecting them.
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