§ MR. COX (Clare, E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, How many outbreaks of pleuro-pneumonia have occurred in Ireland during the present year, up to the date of latest Return; how many of those outbreaks have occurred in the county Dublin; in how many instances have the Privy Council declared localities to be "an area infected with pleuro-pneumonia," and the extent in square miles of the largest "area" so declared; in how many instances have the Privy Council, in opposition to the wishes of the local authorities, ordered the compulsory slaughter of healthy cattle which had been in contact with infected, or supposed to be infected, animals; and, if in any case it has transpired, on a post-mortem examination being made, that all the animals ordered to be slaughtered by the Privy Council, in opposition to the wishes of the local authorities, were found to be perfectly healthy, including the animals condemned by the Privy Council Inspector as being infected with pleuro-pneumonia?
THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY (Colonel KINQ-HARMAN) (Kent, Isle of Thanet)(who replied) During the present year up to July 9, 93 outbreaks of pleuro-pneumonia were reported in Ireland. Seventy-eight of these outbreaks occurred in County Dublin. Ten pleuro-pneumonia infected areas have been declared. The largest area 1762 comprises about 60 square miles. Three compulsory orders have been made, directing the slaughter of cattle in contact with or in the same place with infected cattle. In one of these instances 41 cattle were slaughtered. The postmortem examination showed that 20 of them were affected with pleuro-pneumonia. In another instance, 21 were slaughtered, of which six were found affected with pleuro-pneumonia and two with tuberculosis. In the other case four cattle were slaughtered. These were the only cattle remaining on the farm, seven having been previously slaughtered by the local Inspector, two of which were diseased. None of these four cattle were found on post-mortem examination to be affected with pleuro-pneumonia. The Government Veterinary Inspector did not condemn any of them; but when he visited the farm, and detected the existence of pleuro-pneumonia thereon in the first instance, he was of opinion that one of the cattle was a convalescent case of disease. He did not again see the cattle.
§ MR. COXsaid, he wanted to know why the Privy Council had acted differently in connection with this subject in Ireland from the manner the authorities acted in England? A Question had been addressed to the Home Secretary by the hon. Member for the Spalding Division of Lincolnshire (Mr. Halley Stewart) on Monday last, in answer to which the right hon. Gentleman stated that in no case had the Privy Council ordered the compulsory slaughter of healthy cattle in contact with infected cattle against the wishes of the Local Authorities. He (Mr. Cox) also wished to ask if the right hon. and gallant Gentleman was aware that in the county of Louth there was an infected area of 100 miles? Inconsequence of the answer which the right hon. and gallant Gentleman had given, he would raise this question on the Estimates.
§ COLONEL KING-HARMANsaid, he could not answer the Question, for he had no knowledge of how the authorities acted in England. The Privy Council in Ireland had acted in the interests of the Irish cattle trade in endeavouring to stamp out pleuro-pneumonia, which was the only form of cattle disease existing in Ireland, and the existence of which had been a great check upon the exportation of Irish cattle.