Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the president of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to enquire into foot-and-mouth disease.

  • Great Britain. Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. Foot-and-Mouth Disease Committee.
Date:
1912
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the president of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to enquire into foot-and-mouth disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/370 (page 29)
    26 January 1912.] “communes.” Well, that shows that it is absolutely rampant in Europe, does it not ?—Yes. 482. Would it be your opinion—I ask you exactly the same question as I did Mr. Anstruther—that it would be advisable, as we know it to be the seat of this disease, that some common action should be taken by all foreign countries with our own?—I think so. [ think that very strongly; but of course the Continental authorities for many years looked upon this country as knowing nothing about animal diseases. I have always held a very different opinion. As regards manipulat- ing them, I really believe, as far as my experience goes, that the stamping out of disease is an Anglo- Saxon quality. There is no country, barring Denmark, which has copied us, the United States, which has copied us, and which we may take as an Anglo-Saxon country, and our own Colonies, which have been able to stamp out these diseases, because of this I am inclined to say it is an Anglo-Saxon quality. France is now beginning to follow suit. They had to pass a special Act through Parliament to enable action to be taken. Holland has been following our methods, and although they are not really in such a good position as we are to carry them out, they have made tremendous progress, and if you follow these returns, you will find that countries which are following, what I perhaps insularly call, the British methods, are the countries that are really doing something and making some progress against the dis- ease. But Ido not know that they would altogether receive advice on these things from us, and until they are ripe for making the suggestion themselves, I do -not know that they would take the suggestion very kindly. 483. Am I not right in thinking that, as long as Europe is in this state, we are always liable, whatever steps we may take in this country, to out- breaks from time to time P—Yes. 484, Of course, if there was common action taken by all countries in Kurope with ourselves, it is just as much to their advantage as it would be to ours, exactly ?—Yes ; but it is the obstinate man who stands out and spoils action of this kind. 485. Iam afraid you did not get very much sleep last night; you were getting out a lot of returns, I hear; can you give us any knowledge of the regula- tions in some of these foreign countries ; I do not want to go into them all; as regards foot-and-mouth disease; take Germany, for instance ?—I would like to say about this that I tried to get all the papers, and I am very glad that they did not give them all to me; I could not possibly have got through them ; they kept me till about two o’clock in the morning. I do not suggest that I can give you chapter and verse, but I read through several and refreshed my memory on them. The laws, taken on the whole, are pretty much like our own, but their administration, their plan of carrying them out, which to my mind is the whole thing, is very different. 486. Very slack ?—WNo, I would not call it slack. 487. Oh, very different, I beg yonr pardon?—lI may say now in Germany the law is rather difficult to find your way about in, because it does not run like ours. It lays down a lot of general laws which apply to every disease, and then it lays down a few specific laws for each disease, and if you simply read, without knowing of the general things, the Regulations in connection with foot-and-mouth disease and glanders and so forth, you would think they amounted to nothing, but with the general laws, they amount prac- tically to what our own are, except that the way of carrying them out is different, and, as I say, that is important. Well now, they have to report, and I think they are better than we are in this respect, because not only has the owner to report, as he has here, but the veterinary attendant has to report. Well, he has to do that here by Order now; we introduced an Order compelling that about a year ago; but a slaughterer, a knacker, a meat inspector, practically every man who handles or deals in animals in any way is bound by the German Statute, and under penalty to report disease. 488, (Mr. Richardson Carr.) In a carcase P—Yes, [ Continued. 489. Any sort of disease >—I mean a scheduled disease. They give a schedule which is practically the same as ours with a few added. They define a diseased animal as an animal showing symptoms of a contagious disease, and they define a suspected animal as an animal which does not show such symptoms, but which it is supposed has received contagious matter. Now, of course, one man might interpret that in one way, and another in another. To my mind it micht prevent one of the most important actions in dealing with foot-and-mouth diseased animals, namely the killing of animals that had only probably been exposed to infection. I do not know to what extent that is so; it would take a legal man to tell you what the meaning of it is, but if we think that there is danger of the disease spreading to any animal over here, we can take him and kill him. I do not see any authority for that in the German law, and that to my mind is a cru- cial point. 490. (Mr. Field, M.P.) As a matter of fact, do they kill animals that are in contact, do you know ?—They will some of them. But as regards foot-and-mouth disease in Germany, it has come often like a sweep, it has swept rapidly over the country, and if they did not kill under the circumstances, one could not blame them. On the other hand, they have never given the value to slaughter that we have; at least [ am expressing my own personal opinion that none of the Conti- nental people have given the same value that we have to it. They say, “Oh, yes, England has done very “* well; they are practical people.” But I think dis- trust of stamping out measures results from a mistaken idea of what stamping out by slaughter really is. Stamping out by slaughter to my mind is not simply slaughtering the animals that are diseased and those immediately in contact, but it is in making a fire-break, as it were, round about them, taking away animals to which the disease might spread, that it isreally valuable, and I think appreciation of this is the reason for what I think it is legitimate for me even to call the success of our recent operations. It has been the lifting away of the material, the fuel from the fire, as it were. 491. (Chairman.) Do they have any areas, like we have, in this country, infected areas P—Yes. _ 492. Large areas?—That is not laid down. Of course reading an Act does not tell you what they do. I am filling a lot of this in from what I know from reading foreign journals. Another disadvantage to my mind is this: They have a Central Board, but it is not a Central Board in the sense that ours is a Central Board, with a flying column. As soon as foot- and-mouth disease is declared in Great Britain the requisite number of officers are relieved of all other work, and go out to deal with the outbreak straight away. Perhaps the German method suits their political situation better; I am not in a position to criticise that, except to say that I do not think it is so good as ours. They have departmental veterinary surgeons in all the different States, and an administration in all the different States, and these States are supposed, they say they are bound, to co-operate with each other. Well, I have served, as I have said, in the colonies, and I served at.a time before there was a United South Africa. It is all very well to talk of interstate co-opera- tion, we met together and we used to swear that we would support each other and all that sort of thing, but you always find one is slacker than the other, and it is the slack lot that lets diseases get away. You have no power to compel them, and you cannot go to war with a State because it does not carry out regula- tions. I do not see how you are to compel them. 493. (Mr. Field, M.P.) The Central Authority has not the same jurisdiction and powers as you have here ? —No, what I really mean is, they do not take off their coats and go at it themselves. 494. (Chairman.) It is haphazard rather ?’—Yes, somewhat. If a disease threatens to spread the In- perial Chancellor may appoint a Commissioner to see that all the different States are carrying ont the regu- lations in a uniform manner. This is the thing that T rather take mental exception to; if the disease has begun to spread, they apparently wait until the horse is stolen and then they put on a man to close the door.