Earl of DALKEITHasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he has yet traced the cause of the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease near Glasgow; whether he has any evidence showing that it is due to the use, as containers for feeding stuffs, of bags made from the same packing material as had previously been used for containing offal imported into this country from the Argentine; and, if so, whether he will take steps to prevent the further import of such contaminated matter?
§ Dr. ADDISONNo definite origin for the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease at Glasgow has been discovered, but it is possible that infection may have been carried to the infected pigs from a dump of town refuse only a few yards away from the piggeries, or by foodstuffs from bags which had been made from hessian wrappers in which meat had been conveyed to this country from South America. The Ministry discovered some time ago that hessian wrappers were being made into bags and immediately asked the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Re-search Committee to decide by experiment whether it was theoretically possible for the disease to be introduced into Great Britain in this manner. The Committee has not yet concluded its experiments, but the Ministry is already in consultation with the firms engaged in the South American meat trade with a view to the use of a medium for wrapping meat which cannot afterwards be made into bags for commercial use. The firms concerned have arranged for trial shipments of meat packed in various ways but without the hessian outer covering.