HC Deb 15 April 1889 vol 335 cc484-5
SIR EDWARD BIRKBECK (Norfolk, E.)

asked the Vice Chamberlain whether the recommendation of the Report of the Departmental Committee appointed last Session to inquire into the administration of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts have been considered by the Committee of Council for Agriculture; whether the application of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, conveyed in the letter of His Royal Highness the Acting President, has been the subject of deliberation by the Committee; and whether, as the Lord President of the Council on the 5th March last assured an influential deputation from the Central and Associated Chambers of Agriculture, that there would be no delay in coming to a decision upon the prayer of that deputation for an extension of the powers of the central authority in outbreaks of pleuro-pneumonia, and for a transfer of the charge for compensation in cases of slaughter from the local rates to the National Exchequer, he is prepared to announce the determination of Her Majesty's Government as to proposing legislation in the course of the present Session?

DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)

asked whether the Government intended to take any action on the recommendation of the Departmental Committee with regard to tubercule?

THE VICE CHAMBERLAIN (Viscount LEWISHAM,) Lewisham

The possibility of the transmission of the contagion of foot-and-mouth disease by means of persons or substances which have come in contact with diseased animals has always been recognized by the veterinary advisers of the Government, and measures are adopted at Deptford and other foreign animal wharves to prevent the carrying of infection by such means. There is no information of the escape of the infection of foot-and-mouth disease from Deptford in 1883 and 1884. The stringent precautions referred to were enforced in 1881. Before the Netherlands Orders were passed, the Privy Council were satisfied that the most stringent precautions were taken by the Netherlands Government to prevent the introduction of foot-and-mouth disease across their frontier. The efficacy of the means used is proved by the fact of the Netherlands having escaped any outbreak of the disease for several years. The Privy Council have no reason for believing that foot-and-mouth disease exists any where in the neighbourhood of the Dutch frontier, and whenever an outbreak occurs in Germany the district is immediately isolated.