HC Deb 17 June 1954 vol 528 cc2261-3
25. Sir L. Plummer

asked the Minister of Agriculture what progress is being made with the production of a 'vaccine to protect pigs from atrophic rhinitis.

The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (Sir Thomas Dugdale)

The precise infective agent responsible for atrophic rhinitis has not yet been determined. Until it has, there is little prospect of the successful production of a protective vaccine.

Sir L. Plummer

Is the Minister in close consultation with the veterinary surgeons of Scandinavia, where the disease is rife?

Sir T. Dugdale

We refer to all the people who know about this disease, and we are in touch with Canada as well as with Sweden, but at present we do not know precisely what is the infective organism.

26. Sir L. Plummer

asked the Minister of Agriculture what steps he is taking to prevent the spread of the pig disease, atrophic rhinitis.

35. Mr. de Freitas

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware that the pig disease atrophic rhinitis, commonly called twisted snout, was introduced into Great Britain by an apparently healthy Landrace pig imported from Sweden eight months ago; and what steps he is taking to prevent the disease being spread in Great Britain from Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man by apparently healthy Land-race pigs imported from Sweden within the last few months.

Sir T. Dugdale

I would refer the hon. Members to the reply I gave to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Berwick and East Lothian (Major Anstruther-Gray), on 27th May. Since then, I have made orders prohibiting the importation of all pigs, except for immediate slaughter, from the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland, both of which recently imported Landrace pigs from Sweden. I have not thought it necessary to extend this prohibition to the Isle of Man, because the Landrace pigs imported there are being detained in the island and are isolated from other pigs.

Mr. T. Williams

Has this disease afflicted, or is it afflicting, any of our pigs?

Sir T. Dugdale

If the House will bear with me for a few moments, I will give the latest information. The disease has been confirmed in three young pigs, as I informed the House recently. They came out of an in-pig gilt which was imported from Sweden and auctioned at Peterborough last year. The first case was confirmed on 19th May and the other two on 1st and 3rd June. Two of these pigs have been slaughtered and the third has been kept alive under observation at the Ministry's laboratory at Weybridge.

These three pigs, in turn, were moved on to three separate farms and all the 659 pigs on those farms have been under suspicion. The slaughter of one entire herd of 443 pigs on one of these farms was completed yesterday as the disease was clearly spreading there. A post-mortem on these animals is being carried out at once.