§ Sir R. Glynasked the Minister of Food what responsibility rests with his Department for the conduct of slaughterers employed on farms to butcher animals which may be thought to have had contacts with other animals which have contracted foot-and-mouth disease; how many animals of various kinds have been thus destroyed; and what was the value of the meat thus provided of various kinds since December, 1951.
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeMy Department arranges for a slaughtering contractor to send fully equipped slaughter gangs to the infected place and to render all possible assistance to the veterinary officer in charge of the outbreak. The contractor and the slaughtermen he employs are subject to the instructions of the veterinary officer.
Information as to the number of carcases salvaged and the value of the meat saved is not at present available beyond the end of the March quarter. In that quarter meat and offal were saved for human consumption to the value of £24,523 from 1,022 cattle, £868 from 170 calves, £4,489 from 1,178 sheep and £7,115 from 873 pigs.