§ Mr. Donnerasked the Minister of Agriculture (1) whether owners of livestock can obtain the services of their usual veterinary surgeons on the A and B panels when a whole-time veterinary officer of the State services is not delegated to carry out either an examination of a herd under the accredited scheme or a supervised tuberculin test with view to attestation unless he has been allotted to that portion of the country in which they are situated;
(2) whether freedom of choice of veterinary surgeons by stock owners is allowed for the purpose of obtaining the attested or accredited herd certificate, or whether stock owners are required to make their choice from those veterinary surgeons allocated by the Ministry to a specific area?
§ Mr. W. S. Morrison:The clinical examination of herds in respect of which applications for a licence to use the special designation "Accredited" have been made or in respect of which licences to use this designation have already been issued under the Milk (Special Designation) Orders, is being carried out, so far as possible, by whole-time veterinary officers of the Ministry. Where a whole-time officer is not available to carry out this duty the examination is undertaken by an inspector on Panel A for the district in which the herd is situated. "Assisted" tests of supervised herds under the attested herds schemes are carried out by private veterinary surgeons on behalf of the owner. There is no restriction in the schemes upon the choice of a veterinary surgeon for this purpose.