FOOT-AND-MOUTH.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20260, 31 July 1937, Page 26 (Supplement)

FOOT-AND-MOUTH.

REPORT ON RESEARCH. WORK IN ENGLAND. A further progress report of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Research Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, England, has been published. This is the fifth report issued since the committee was appointed 13 years ago, and it covers the work of the committee during the five-year period ended September 30, 1935. In view of the New Zealand attitude toward the embargo and the necessity for importing cattle of the highest class to improve the beef breeds of the Dominion, the matter will be of pari tlcular interest to farmers. ' The chairman of the committee is Sir Joseph Arkwright, and membership is divided equally between distinguished medical and veterinary authorities, together with a representative of the Ministry. Farmers in England have been looking to this committee to discover an alternative to the “slaughter policy” method of dealing with foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in Great Britain. The committee in its present report says that even if an effective method of immunising cattle against the disease were found—and on that point an optimistic note is struck—it would not necessarily result in the existing policy of slaughter being replaced by vaccination, for under the conditions prevailing in this country it .seems likely that a slaughter policy may always be necessary to keep in hand a disease which is so infectious. Serum of Little Value. In other countries where the disease Is not endemic, or, In other words has not been allowed to get out of hand, the slaughter policy of dealing with outbreaks is almost invariably followed. This applies, for example, to the United States, Scandinavia Switzerland, and Denmark, in France. Holland and Belgium outbreaks are isolated and to some extent preventive treatment with serum is used, bul

the committee states that it has failed to discover either serum or vaccine of sufficient potency to be of much practical value under the conditions existing in this country. In Germany another system, involving isolation and inoculation, is practised, but it is gathered that the authorities would be anxious to introduce a slaughter policy if the incidence of the disease becomes sufficiently low to enable such a policy to be adopted. When the committee was appointed in 1924, it was known that foot-and-mouth disease was highly infectious and was caused by the action of a filterable virus, but no sufficient foundation of scientific knowledge existed for

administrative measures calculated to alleviate the heavy losses not only to the State but to farming interests generaly arising from the slaughter policy or from any other known method of dealing with the disease. Little was known, for example, about the length of time which the virus could survive under various conditions; of the existence and relative importance of methods of spread other than lirectly from one infected animal to another; of the possible occurence of the disease in wild rodents or other small animals; or of the possibility of inducing effective immunity.

Complicated Research. From the farmers’ standpoint the immunity experiments are perhaps the most interesting and significant. It is explained that this line of research is extremely complicated because of the existence of a largo number of different strains of virus, and that an animal inoculated with on© strain and rendered immune to a further attack from that strain is still susceptible to an attack from another strain.

The committee has come to the conclusion that it is worth while making an attempt to discover whether it will be possible to induce immunity against tfle three strains which between them have been responsible for most of the outbreaks occurring in this country. This work is in progress at present,

and the Experimental Station at Pirbright has been properly equipped with isolation boxes, etc., on a sufficient scale for a comprehensive test with large animals. Some indication of the results obtained is given in the report.

Regarding immunity, two possibilities lie ahead. First, if the committee’s work results in the production of an effective serum or vaccine which could be safely administered in the field as a protective measure against infection a valuable instrument would be placed in the Ministry’s hands for use on the occurrence of an outbreak to mitigate the effects of the present slaughter policy. .Second, the production of a vaccine or serum inducing a combined immunity would enable importing countries, from which it is strongly suspected that much of our infection comes, to introduce administrative measures of immunisation calculated to reduce the risk of virus coming over with chilled and frozen meat. Practical Results. The results obtained from the various fundamental and practical investigations have already enabled the committee to recommend administrative action which has eliminated at least some of the many possible sources of outbreaks in Great Britain. The orders made by the Ministry compelling the boiling or cooking of animal products before use as feeding stuffs for live stock and making certain requirements relating to wrapping materials are based on the committee’s work, and it has also led to increased vigilance by countries exporting chilled or frozen meat to the United Kingdom.

On another practical point the committee has now full knowledge about the efficiency of different classes of disinfectants under various conditions. This knowledge is of value in dealing with outbreaks of disease and particularly in preventing the spread of such outbreaks. A further line of investigation has been the testing of drugs of various descriptions in respect of which curative claims are made from time to time. All such tests have had negative or insignificant results.

It has recently been discovered that the hedgehog is extremely susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease and that it

: s conveyed by contact between one hedgehog and another, as with ordinary farm stock. This discovery has provided the committee with an experimental animal of great value and suggests that future researches will be considerably expediated as a result.