MAINTAIN EMBARGO

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 107, 30 January 1935, Page 8

MAINTAIN EMBARGO

Dangers of Foot-and-Mouth Disease “WE SHOULD NOT TAKE ANY RISKS” Dominion Special Service. Palmerston North, January 29. “Foot and mouth disease is a terrible thing. We should not take any risks with it,” said Mr. T. L. Lancaster, head of Hie Auckland University College Botany Department, in an interview to-day. “We have the finest stock in the world,” Mr. Lancaster added. “Jersey Island has maintained tlie quality of its cattle without importing fresh blood for hundreds of years. There seems to be a firmly implanted idea in this country that new stock must be imported, when all that is required is breeding along the right lines.” There was a good deal of mystery attached to foot and mouth disease, and more research -work into its origin was required. The cause of foot and mouth disease had not been firmly established, but it might be due to micro-organ-isms so tiny that they could not be detected. “When in England I heard of the effects of foot and mouth disease, and I do not think New Zealand should remove the present embargo. I am strongly against its removal. Farmers are struggling under heavy- burdens now without having another added to their load. “We have introduced red deer into this country, and they have multiplied with rapidity. If they contracted foot and mouth disease from some source we would never stamp it out. As there is so much rugged country occupied by these animals, isolation o£ areas, as adopted in England, would be impossible. Then again we are a;small and relatively poor community. The benefits to be obtained from the introduction of new stock are unworthy of consideration when consideration is given fo the risk of having an outbreak of the disease.”