Letter from the Commissioner of Agriculture to the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture : communicating information on the subject of pleuro-pneumonia among cattle.

  • Le Duc, William Gates, 1823-1917.
Date:
[1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter from the Commissioner of Agriculture to the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture : communicating information on the subject of pleuro-pneumonia among cattle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    The following late telegrams, showing the action of the British Gov- ernment, are appended: THE AMERICAN CATTLE TRADE—NO FURTHER INTERFERENCE EXPECTED. London, February 8. A committee of the Cattle Trade Association at Liverpool, in order to avoid inter- ruption to the trade, have ottered to erect the necessary laiiage and abattoirs to com- ply with the requirements of the Privy Council. It is believed, however, that, in consequence ot the growing importance of the trade fco Liverpool, either the authori- ties or the corporation or the dock hoard will undertake the work. All arrivals of cattle from America since the .steamer Ontario's cargo have been found entirely free from disease. The severity of the weather, therefore, it is believed caused the out- break in That instance. The British Government is, under the circumstances, not in- clined to interfere with the importation of cattle from America, provided there is adequate inspection before shipment and provision of the required lairage at Liver- poo] to put them in position to meet such cases as The Ontario's. It is not believed that slaughter on the quays will be enforced where no disease exists. Persons iu the trade say that under these conditions American shippers need uot fear any interference with the business. London, February 9. Iu regard to the importation of cattle from America, no actiou of the Privy Council has been made known since the notice read in the Liverpool town council on February 5, that cattle cannot be landed at the Liverpool docks after March 1, unless provision is made for slaughter on the quay. THE CATTLE EXPORT TRADE—EFFECT OF THE BRITISH ORDER IN COUNCIL. Liverpool, February 11. The order of the Privy Council adopted yesterday revoking after March 3, 1879, article 13 of the foreign animals order so far as it relates to the United States was a great surprise to The trade here. All cattle from the United States after March 3 will have to be slaughtered in abattoirs now being prepared on the dock estates of Birken- head and Liverpool within ten days after landing. I also forward you articles on the subject of pleuro-pneumonia, clipped from the National Live Stock Journal of March, 1878, and November, 1878. They were inclosed to me and my attention directed to them by Mr. J. H. Sanders, the editor of the Journal. [From the National Live Stock Journal of March, 1878.] THE GREATEST DANGER TO OUR STOCK—THE LUNG FEVER—CONTAGIOUS PLEURO-PNEU- MONIA. The Journal has frequently called attention to the great dangers that beset our live stock from imported plagues of foreign origin. During the past year the sudden in- vasion of Western Europe and England by the rinderpest roused the agricultural com- munity from their dream of safety, and called forth from the Treasury an order remark- able alike for its promptitude and good intentions, and for the fatal blunders which rendered it worse than a dead letter. Ouce more there seems a prospect of a renewal of these apprehensions, the Eusso-Turkish war having led to an extension of this cat- tle plague into Hungary, from winch the Atlantic coast and Great Britain may be any day infected, owing to the activity of the stock trade. Should this unfortunately take place, it will find us no better prepared than we were a year ago, and our Treasury order, now in force, will freely invite the disease fco enter, provided it makes its advent respectably—in the systems of blooded sloe]:, and not in poor cross-bred animals, which it would be ruinous to import, even if sound. A similar welcome is extended, by im- plication, to all those ruminants which are devoted more particularly to luxury, and have not been .degraded to such vulgar utilitarian objects as the production of meat or wool. Yet all ruminants are subject to rinderpest, and this malady was carried fco France, in 1866, by two gazelles, as other plagues have often been carried to new countries by the privileged blooded stock. But we started out to notice a danger which is no longer separated from us by the broad barrier of the Atlantic, and whose malign presence is not to be dismissed by any one often thousand contingencies, as is the case with the possible advent, of the rinder- pest. This danger stands in our midst, and is steadily gaining in force as it encroaches