30. Mr. THORNEasked the Minister of Agriculture whether, seeing that as a result of numerous outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, early this year in East Yorkshire, involving the closure of local markets and affecting an area in which 60,000 fat sheep were ready for sale, in order to cope with the difficulty of marketing the animals within the infected area a co-operative abattoir was set up, from which meat was consigned to carious dead-meat markets under the supervision of his officers, he will explain what steps were taken in this case to ensure that this meat from an infected area did not spread contagion to districts free from the disease; and whether Regulations, similar to those adopted in this instance, could equally be applied to meat imported from the Continent?
Mr. GUINNESSIn the case in question the animals concerned had been under observation by the Ministry's veterinary inspectors for a considerable period, and the Ministry was satisfied that foot-and-mouth disease did not exist among them. Further examinations were made by the veterinary inspectors both before and after slaughter, and these precautions were considered sufficient to justify the action taken by my Department. In the case of foreign animals the position is entirely different, inasmuch as foot-and-mouth disease is so prevalent on the Continent that it would be practically impossible for any foreign Government to certify that animals or carcases proposed for export had not been exposed to Infection.