§ MR. BOLANDI beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether he is aware that the outbreaks of swine fever in Ireland in 1894 are recorded as being 7,619, but that in 1905 the number had been reduced to 48; that in Great Britain the figures for these years were respectively 5,682 and 817; and whether, in view of the far greater success that has attended the efforts in Ireland to eradicate this disease, that only one case of swine fever is alleged to have been imported from Ireland to Great Britain during the last three years, and that it is not alleged that this importation caused the increase of swine fever in Great Britain to 1,280 in 1906, and to 1,204 for the first twenty-four weeks of 1907, he will take steps to secure the repeal of the orders which un-unduly restrict the importation of Irish pigs into Great Britain.
§ THE TREASURER OF THE HOUSEHOLD (Sir EDWARD STRACHEY, Somersetshire, S.)The statistics given by the hon. Member in the Question are substantially correct, but the fact that only one case of swine fever has been discovered in pigs imported from Ireland since the imposition of the restrictions seems to the Board to be a testimony to their success rather than an argument for their removal. The Orders in question do not do more than provide similar safeguards, when pigs are brought from Ireland to Great Britain, to those provided when pigs are moved from district to district in Great Britain, and until Ireland is free from swine fever we should not be justified in allowing unrestricted importation from that country.
§ MR. BOLANDI beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether his attention has been called to the report of the chief veterinary inspector of the Board for 1906, in which he states that the common methods of post-mortem examination in cases of alleged swine fever are faulty, and that it 709 is not by any means always an easy matter to diagnose swine fever by an ordinary post-mortem examination; and whether, in view of the fact that only an ordinary examination was made in the one case of swine fever alleged to have been imported from Ireland during the last three years, he will secure the repeal of the Orders restricting importation.
§ SIR. EDWARD STRACHEYIt is the case that the chief veterinary officer of the Board commented in his last annual report on the difficulty of diagnosing swine fever, but his remarks are directed to show that the disease may escape detection under the common methods of examination. In the particular case referred to the disease was diagnosed both by the local veterinary inspector and the veterinary officers of the Board, who reported that the lesions were typical of swine fever.