Report on foot-and-mouth disease in Ireland in the year 1912 / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of His Majesty.

  • Ireland. Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report on foot-and-mouth disease in Ireland in the year 1912 / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of His Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    prohibition formed a very effective embargo on all movements of animals which would be likely to spread the disease. The Department, however, in scheduling such districts reserved to themselves, by a provision in their Orders, the right to permit exceptions to the general prohibition in special cases. Licences for movements prohibited by the Orders were granted by the Department in exceptional cases of undoubted necessity, and when the Department were satisfied that no danger of con- veying infection would arise from the movements. No animals were in any circumstances licensed to be moved into, from, or within, a scheduled district, except after careful veterinary in- spection, and the movements were in nearly all instances con- ducted under police supervision. The number of animals allowed to be moved in this fashion was of course compara- tively very small. When, after a short period, the scheduled district comprising the four counties mentioned was reduced somewhat in extent, the Department, as an additional precautionary proceeding, prohibited the slaughter of animals and the movement of carcases within the district, unless a licence for the slaughter or movement had been granted by an inspector or other officer authorised by the Department for the purpose. But this particular prohibition was not enforced in connection with the majority of the subsequent outbreaks of the disease which occurred in other parts of the country. The Fifteen Miles Radius of Scheduled Districts. In the cases of the later outbreaks also the scheduled districts were of smaller proportions than at first. The extent of country four counties—scheduled on the occurrence of the first outbreak at Swords was unusually large. The Department at that time had strong hopes that the disease might be confined within the Swords area, and they accordingly did not hesitate to proclaim a very extensive district, so as to shut off the affected locality as completely as possible from the rest of Ireland. But it became evident once the disease had ceased to be confined to a single district and become sporadic, that it would not be practicable to maintain so large areas under restriction. In nearly all the later cases, accordingly, districts having a radius o a ou fifteen miles from the seats of disease were scheduled bfteen, miIeS’ it; may be mentioned, is that fixed by the British Board of Agriculture in the first instance on the occuirence of an outbreak in Great Britain. It was obviously impossible to fix the fifteen miles limit with umfoim exactness For the purpose of definition and that the borders of a scheduled district might be precisely known by need? b°ePfoliand ^ Constabuiary, natural boundaries must needs be followed, such as rivers or main roads, or the dividing lines of rural districts or electoral divisions. Individual armers and land owners frequently complained of the alleged