HC Deb 14 July 1947 vol 440 cc34-5
56. Lord Willoughby de Eresby

asked the Minister of Agriculture if he will give the latest figures of the number of cases of fowl pest notified and the number of fowls ordered to be slaughtered.

Mr. T. Williams

Up to 9th July there have been 571 outbreaks of fowl pest in Great Britain and about 35,000 birds have been slaughtered.

Lord Willoughby de Eresby

In view of the fact that these figures go up every time I ask this Question and the fact that the adverse balance of our overseas payments also rises, does not the right hon. Gentleman think that the moment has come when the Government might well prohibit the import of poultry from countries where fowl pest is known to exist, in order to save dollar exchange and to wipe out fowl pest in this country?

Mr. Williams

Perhaps the hon. Member will be happy to know that the number of outbreaks is going down and down instead of up and up. The numbers of outbreaks in the last four weeks were 65, 40, 30 and 17 respectively. There is reason to hope that we are overcoming this problem.