Report on swine-fever in Great Britain / by Professor Brown, Agricultural Department, Privy Council Office.

  • Great Britain. Agricultural Department
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on swine-fever in Great Britain / by Professor Brown, Agricultural Department, Privy Council Office. 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.

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    week on the average. The highest in one week was 123 in each of the weeks ending April 10th and May Ist, and the lowest 71 in the week ending April 17th. The number of swine attacked during this time was 4,526, or an average of 502-88 per week, the highest being 727 in the last week of this period, and the lowest 377 in the last week in March. The disease continued to increase in May and June, and in the four weeks which ended June the 19th the outbreaks reached the average number of 206 weekly. The swine attacked each week amounted to about 1,165 per week. Causes of the continuance of Swine-Fever in this Country. A review of the short history which has been given of the progress o£ swine-fever in this country since 1878, when it was added to the list of diseases within the meaning of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, must leave on the mind of the reader an impression that very little advantage was gained by the adoption of the different measures, including compulsory slaughter, for the suppression of the disease during a period of nearly seven years. In fact, at the end of the time the malady was more rife than at the beginning, and ifc is not difficult to explain the unsatisfactory results of the system which was carried into effect. When swine-fever was included in the list of diseases by Order of Council, only a few, certainly not half-a-dozen, local authorities had express'ed any desire to have power to deal with the disease, the majority of stock-owners who were fully awake to the necessity for dealing stringently with pie uro-pneu- monia and foot-and-mouth disease knew nothing of swine-fever ; and those who were familiar with it seemed to be impressed with the idea that it was one of those things which could not be helped, and rather objected to any more restrictions on trade and movement in regard to farm animals, on the general principle that quite enough had already been done in that direction without putting pigs under the ban. During the greater part of the time that swine-fever was being- dealt with by Orders of Council, foot-and-mouth disease was prevalent in the country, and the attention of stock-owners and legislators was exclusively devoted to the consideration of the best means of eradicating that affection and preventing its introduction from abroad. Meanwhile the less serious disease was masked by the greater, and the measures which were enforced for the purpose of arresting the spreading of the pig disease were carried into effect in a half-hearted manner. Slaughter of diseased and infected swine was adopted in some districts with satisfactory promptitude. In others a number of animals were allowed to die before any action was taken. The disease, after being stamped out in some districts by the energetic action of the authorities, Avas re-introduced from other parts of the
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