§ SIR W. J. COLLINS (St. Pancras, W.)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, what has been the number of outbreaks of swine fever in each month of the current year, also the number of swine infected, the number slaughtered, and the amount of compensation paid; whether the experience of the Board suggests that swine fever can be stamped out by the methods of disease prevention employed with success in the case of other contagious diseases of animals; and whether he will cause further investigation to be made into the nature of the disease and the most effective means for checking its prevalence.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) No record is kept of the number of swine infected with swine fever, but the number of outbreaks of swine fever, the number of swine slaughtered, and the compensation paid during the current year in Great Britain are as follows—
§ The experience of the Board does not suggest that swine fever cannot be eradicated by the methods which are now being adopted for its suppression. The veterinary officers of the Board are continuously engaged in carrying out investigations of the character indicated, and as a result of those investigations new Orders on the subject of swine fever were issued and came into operation on 1st June last.