Foot-and-Mouth Disease

HC Deb 21 February 1952 vol 496 cc427-8

49. Mr. Crouch

asked the Minister of Agriculture what evidence he has as to semen being a carrier of foot and mouth disease.

Sir T. Dugdale

I am advised that the virus of foot-and-mouth disease invades all the tissues of an affected animal and that there is every reason to expect that the semen would be infected. There is in fact, evidence of the recovery of virus from the semen of infected bulls in Holland.

Mr. Crouch

Is my right hon. and gallant Friend not aware that there is a good deal of alarm in agricultural circles in view of the fact that last winter there was a case of foot and mouth disease in an A.I. station?

50. Mr. Crouch

asked the Minister of Agriculture if he will have an annual report of the research station at Pirbright published as was the custom in pre-war years.

Sir T. Dugdale

The Foot-and-Mouth Disease Research Institute was reconstituted on 1st April, 1951, under the Companies Act, 1948, as an independent research institute under the control of a governing body. The governing body has the question of publishing an annual report under consideration.