AIRMEN’S NEW JOB.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1921, Page 5

AIRMEN’S NEW JOB.

HUNT FOR DISEASE GERMS IN CLOUDS. A new theory of how foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks are started in Great Britain—that the virus is air-borne —has been placed before the Ministry of Agriculture by its Chief Veterinary Officer, Sir Stewart Stocknan, who suggests a part airmen may play in future research. . Sir Stewart shows that Great Britain is invaded by the disease only when the latter is prevalent on the Continent, and his researches have led him to discard the theories that people coming from the Continent, imported feeding-stuffs and litter, and imported birds (excepting possibly those which come, in spring from the soujjj) may be the carrying agencies. He thus puts forward the solution of the virus being air-borne for long distances. He declares: “Where affected cattle are allowed to remain alive in the open, as happens on the Continent, it is no uncommon thig to see strings of viscous slobber from the mouth whirled up into the air and dispersed into minute particles which disappear from sight.” He suggests that these particles “can be carried long distances by air-cur-rents, even in clouds, and be washed down in rain.” Exploration of the air, he thinks, would show whether in the areas mostly invaded there may not bo something in the form of air-pockets of negative pressure which might account for suspended virus descending to earth water