§ 65. Mr. Hurdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the cost of dealing with outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and the amount of compensation paid to farmers for livestock slaughtered in the past two years, to the latest convenient date; the total time in this period when one or other part of the country has not been affected by foot-and-mouth disease; and to what extent it has been possible to attribute the primary outbreaks to particular sources of infection.
§ Mr. John HareI regret that no estimate is readily available of the total cost to public funds of dealing with outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in a particular period, but I will write to my hon. Friend.
The compensation paid in the year ended 31st March, 1957, was about £820,000 and during the present financial year to 31st December, 1957, the compensation paid was approximately £720,000. Great Britain has been free from the disease for about 16 weeks over the last two years.
In 1956, 17 primary outbreaks were attributed to South American meat and 11 to the spread of infection from the continent of Europe, and in 4 cases the origin was obscure. The comparable figures for 1957 are 23, 17 and 3, and for the first two months of 1958. 2, 9 and 6 respectively.
§ Sir A. Bossomasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he is aware of the practice adopted by the police in the Liverpool area, of collecting stray dogs during an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in that area; and if 96W he will take steps by legislation or otherwise to enforce this practice in all other parts of the country when there is an outbreak of the disease.
§ Mr. John HareThe regulations require dogs within a radius of five miles of any infected place to be kept under control, and empower the local authority or the police to seize any dog not so kept under control and to deal with it as a stray dog.
§ Sir A. Bossomasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give consideration to forbidding organised shooting parties to travel in a foot-and-mouth disease infected area.
§ Mr. John HareI accept the view of the Gowers Committee on foot-and-mouth disease that the danger of spread by people and animals in infected areas cannot be met by rules and prohibitions unless the danger is immediate and palpable. The regulations in force are intended to prevent the assembly of large numbers of people in infected areas, and point-to-point race meetings, for example, are prohibited. Dogs must be kept under effective control within a five-mile radius of infected places. Otherwise, I am satisfied that it is best to deal with specific cases as they arise.