HC Deb 25 July 1893 vol 15 cc472-4
DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether, in the event of suspicious cases occurring among future cargoes of Canadian cattle, portions of the affected lungs will be supplied if desired to independent scientific authorities for examination; and whether, in the event of the detection by his professional advisers of pathological appearances, similar to those already diagnosed by them as pleuro-pneumonia, inoculative experiments will be carried out to test the existence of a-true contagious element?

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. H. GARDNER,) Essex, Saffron Walden

If any further cases of pleuro-pneumonia are discovered among cattle imported from Canada, I should be quite willing to take the same course as that pursued in connection with the recent cases—namely, to give facilities for the examination of the lungs by any veterinary surgeon appointed by the Canadian Government, and to supply them, so far as is practicable, with sections of the diseased portions. The suggestion made by my hon. Friend as to carrying out inoculative experiments has been frequently considered by me in conjunction with my veterinary advisers, and I need scarcely say we should certainly have had recourse to so simple a method of determining the matter if any reliable results could be obtained. I am advised, however, that the effects of inoculation with the liquid exuded in pleuro-pneumonia vary considerably. Indeed, it not infrequently happens that no local or constitutional disturbances are produced; and, moreover, the same local results have been produced by other material capable of setting up infective inflammation. In these circumstances the experiments proposed would obviously not afford any reliable test of the character of the disease.

DR. FARQUHARSON

Will the veterinary surgeon have to be an English surgeon and resident in this country?

MR. H. GARDNER

Yes, Sir.

SIR J. LENG (Dundee)

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture when the Papers he has promised relating to the examination of the lungs of Canadian cattle by the veterinary experts of the Board will be laid upon the Table; and whether they will include the Reports of the Canadian Inspectors, and the Correspondence that has passed between the Board, the Government of Canada, and the Colonial Office respecting the order for slaughtering all Canadian cattle at the port of disembarkation?

MR. H. GARDNER

I hope to lay the Papers in question upon the Table in the course of next week; but correspondence is now proceeding between the Colonial Office and the Board of Agriculture which it is desirable should be included. If the Canadian Government and the Colonial Office see no objection, I should propose to print the whole of the Correspondence to which my hon. Friend refers, and with a view to the inclusion of the Reports of the Canadian Imspectors I have suggested that they should be officially communicated to me.

MR. W. WHITELAW

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he will allow several cargoes of Canadian cattle to be landed in this country and kept in quarantine under the strict observation of the Board of Agriculture for such a time as the Board should consider necessary, in order to prove beyond dispute whether or not reasonable security exists for their free importation?

MR. H. GARDNER

I am afraid that the arrangement proposed would not be of much assistance in connection with the matter to which the hon. Member refers. The detention of cargoes for the lengthened period necessary would involve great practical difficulty; and even if no cases of disease presented themselves amongst the animals detained, it would only prove that diseased animals are not comprised in every cargo—a fact which is already beyond dispute.

MR. W. WHITELAW

Are the veterinary officers of the Board of Agriculture of opinion that pleuro-pneumonia is so slightly infectious that it can have existed in Canada for a year and still have defied discovery by the authorities there?

MR. H. GARDNER

That is a matter of opinion. The disease has been found in cargoes arriving in Scotland, and by the Act which I have to administer the country which has to determine what precautions are necessary is the importing country.

MR. W. WHITELAW

I shall raise the question on the Estimates.