PIGS AND DISEASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 June 1921, Page 11

PIGS AND DISEASE.

WARNING TO FARMERS. In reference to the recent prosecution of a farmer on a charge of selling diseased meat in the shape of three careases of pigs which at the time of slaughter were suffering from demodectice mange, an officer of the Live Stock Division of the Agricultural Department pointed out to a Dominion reporter that the case had been takeri as a general warning to farmers supplying meat direct to shops. He further stated that last year over 18,000 pigs, which did not pass through the abbattoirs, were sent direct from farms to the four cities, in the Dominion. These animals were indiscriminately sent to any shop the • farmers liked to select, and the Department was only notified through the qburtesy 'of‘ butchers. It was not obligatory for them to notify the authorities that they had for sale pigs that had not been inspected. This, he added, opened the door to unscrupulous dealers, who might suspect that a pig was diseased, in not applying for inspection at all. The inspection of butchers shops was in the interests of and for the protection of the public, not the farmers, and the latter were taking risks in sending into the cities pigs that they were not absolutely certain were free from' disease. The proper course to take in the absence of any proof that an animal was absolutely healthy and sound was io sepfl it to the abattoirs, where all ani- ■ mals were inspected before being released for human consumption.