Foot-and-Mouth Disease

HC Deb 06 March 1952 vol 497 cc66-7W

64. Mr. Fernyhough

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he will take steps to prohibit foxhounds being brought from a foot-and-mouth disease area into a non-infected one.

Sir T. Dugdale

I am advised that the bringing of foxhounds from an area infected with foot-and-mouth disease into free country does not involve any material risk of the spread of infection, and I should not therefore feel justified in prohibiting such movements. Hunting is prohibited inside an infected area.

66. Mr. Crouch

asked the Minister of Agriculture if he will consider making compulsory the vaccination of all bulls at artificial insemination centres with polysalent serum against foot and mouth disease.

Sir T. Dugdale

No. I am advised that vaccinated bulls might become infected and, while showing little or no sign of illness themselves, be capable of passing on infection. A vaccinated bull might, therefore, be the cause of widespread dissemination of the disease before it became suspected as a source of infection.