Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Slaughter Policy) (Hansard, 19 May 1952)

§ 27. Mr. Hamilton
asked the Minister of Food how much extra meat is now available to his Department as a direct result of the slaughter policy consequent on the widespread outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease; and what will be the resultant increase in the domestic meat ration.

§ Major Lloyd George
None, Sir. The extra meat resulting from the slaughter of livestock which has been in contact with infected animals is outweighed by the temporary hold up in normal slaughterings caused by the restrictions on the movement of livestock.

§ Mr. Hamilton
Is it not the case that meat which would normally come here from New Zealand is being diverted to Canada and that foot-and-mouth infected meat from Canada, which the United States will not eat, is being sent here?

§ Major Lloyd George
The hon. Gentleman is quite wrong. No infected meat is being sent here from Canada or anywhere else. The diversion of meat from New Zealand to Canada is to help Canada out of a difficulty. We are getting non-infected prime meat from Canada in return.

§ Mr. Hamilton
Why is meat from Canada now being refused by the United States?

§ Major Lloyd George
The United States has a totally different rule from the one we have here. In this country we use for ordinary feeding purposes areas which are not infected, but when there is an infection in Canada, no matter where it is, the whole of the Canadian border is closed to the United States. The only meat we are getting is from a non-infected area.