§ Mr. FELLasked if the attention of the President of the Board of Agriculture has been called to an outbreak of swine fever on the 17th December on the allotments at Cobholm, Great Yarmouth, and to the fact that the outbreak was known to the inspectors of the Board, but they refused to order the pigs in four adjacent styes which were presumably affected to be slaughtered, and this was done at the expense of the Cobholm Pigkeepers' Association; and why does the Board refuse to take any action in cases of swine fever on allotments while it acts promptly in cases on isolated farms where little risk is run?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANIn the case to which I understand the hon. Member to refer the Board were advised that the infected place could be satisfactorily isolated. This course was adopted, and the usual procedure followed. I am informed that three pigs were slaughtered on the infected place by or on behalf of the owner, and that he received compensation for his loss from the Cobholm Pigkeepers' Association, of which he was a member. No pigs appear to have been slaughtered on account of actual or presumptive infection on premises outside the infected place, and I am not aware that any further outbreak of the disease has occurred which can be traced to infection from that source. There is no foundation for the statement contained in the concluding paragraph of the question.