§ Mr. Biffenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the latest number of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease; what stock have been slaughtered; what evidence he has of the source of the infection and the reasons for its rapid expansion; and what is provided by the latest outbreak to suggest that a policy of vaccination is preferable to slaughter as a means of controlling the disease.
§ Mr. PeartThere have now been 407 outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in the present epidemic. Approximately 36,000 cattle, 19,000 sheep, 21,000 pigs and seven goats have been slaughtered.
I have no evidence of the source of the infection as yet. The rapid spread is due to the highly infectious nature of the virus and to the density of stocking in the area in open fields. There has been no evidence of mechanical transfer by human movement or by vehicles. The virus may be windborne or carried by birds and wild mammals.
This is the most severe epidemic that has occurred since the Gowers Committee reported against vaccination in 1954. But the heavy infection is at present confined to two counties and the situation has to be viewed against the long periods of freedom from the disease which this country has enjoyed since 1962. Nothing that has occurred in the present epidemic has so far convinced me that such partial control as could be secured by vaccination would be preferable to eradication by slaughter.