Report / Committee on Cattle Diseases.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Cattle Diseases.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report / Committee on Cattle Diseases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    151/166 (page 149)
    19. Herds which are excluded from the accredited herd plan may become supervised herds. This plan is not the subject of any official regulations, but is based upon an agreement with the Department of Agriculture signed by the owner of the herd in question. Under this agreement, in consideration for his herd being tested with tuberculin by the department, the herd owner undertakes to carry out the instructions of the department’s veterinary officer, to slaughter all reacting cattle and to take necessary precautions against the reintroduction of tuberculosis into his herd either by the purchase of new stock or in other ways. No compensation is paid for cattle slaughtered. Under this plan 4,855 herds had been tested by 1932, at which time 1,842 herds were awaiting test. As the restricted area plan, to which we next refer, extends, supervised herds are comprehended in the larger scheme and are no longer dealt with as individual herds. 20. The restricted area plan was brought into operation by an order in council dated the 4th May, 1927. It provides that, on the application of a provincial government, and with the consent of two-thirds of the cattle owners in the proposed area, the Dominion government may declare an area a restricted area. Under the restrictions which are thereupon imposed on the movements of cattle into such an area, cattle which are neither drawn from accredited herds, nor pass a tuberculin test, are prohibited from entering the area except for immediate slaughter. Cattle within the area are tested with tuberculin as soon as possible after the area is proclaimed, and thereafter as often as is required by the veterinary director-general. Reactors to the test are slaughtered without delay, and compensation is paid to their owners up to two-thirds of their value, subject to a maximum compensation. Under this plan 1,627,473 cattle had been tested by the year 1932, and 1,242,379 animals were being supervised under it. In many restricted areas the incidence of tuberculosis had been reduced to very small proportions. In the province of Prince Edward Island, for example, the whole of which constitutes a single restricted area, the incidence of tuberculosis was in 1929 no more than 0-15 per cent. 21. The extent of the effort which is being made in Canada to control bovine tuberculosis may be judged from the fact that in the year ended the 3ilst March, 1932, nearly one million tests were carried out on over 800,000 animals. Among these, nearly 20,000 reactors were discovered and slaughtered, and compensation amounting to 665,000 dollars was paid for them out of public funds. As in the United States, a very hopeful view is taken by those in charge of these operations of the prospect of reducing tuberculosis to manageable proportions. 22. In addition to the efforts which it is making to eradicate bovine tuberculosis, the Dominion government has instituted a plan under which it is hoped eventually to reduce the incidence of contagious abortion. This plan resembles the supervised herd plan in that it is based on an agreement between the herd owner and the Department of Agriculture, under which, in return for assistance in making blood tests of his cattle, the owner under- takes to carry out the instructions of the department’s veterinary officer. The methods of eradication employed, however, are different. The method of the isolation of the reacting section of the herd and its gradual elimination as uninfected young stock are reared is contemplated as an alternative to the method of immediate slaughter in the eradication of this disease. The sale of reacting animals is also permitted, but only into herds already infected with the disease, and on disclosure of the fact that the animal has reacted, to the intending purchaser. At the end of the year 1931-32 only 81 herds were under supervision, of which 70 had already been tested and 11 were awaiting test. (iv) The control of the milk supply and of cattle diseases in Denmark. 23. The milk supply of Copenhagen is drawn from farms which are subject to a monthly veterinary inspection. This inspection refers not only to the health of the cows, but also to the cleanliness of the cows and of the