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such as cattle market inspection, should continue to be discharged by private practitioners.
184. A veterinary service with the duties which we have outlined We assume that one above cannot be established immediately.
The veterinary officer would be required for 10,000 dairy cattle. number of inspections that would be possible annually on such a basis would vary in different parts of Great Britain. In Scotland, where cattle are kept indoors for a longer part of the year and can therefore be more readily inspected, a minimum of three inspections should be possible. In England and Wales it might not be possible to inspect so frequently, though a minimum of two inspections annually should be maintained. On the above basis a total force of some 800 veterinary inspectors would be required. Veterinary inspectors would also be required for the work to be undertaken in connection with the eradication of tuberculosis, to which we subsequently refer. At present we understand that the number of veterinary surgeons who enter the profession every year is only enough to fill the places of those who retire. The gradual replacement of part-time veterinary officers by whole-time officers will release a number of qualified veterinary officers for public service. For at present many veterinary surgeons with an extensive private practice are obliged to employ assistants as a result of the calls which their public duties make upon their time. But it is not likely that so many veterinary surgeons could be withdrawn from the ranks of those engaged in private practice without causing a serious shortage and without the offer of a salary well above the level at present in force. We do not doubt that students of a good type will offer themselves in adequate numbers for veterinary training once it is fully realised that, on the expansion of the veterinary service, an attractive career will be open to those joining the service. But it will be impossible to attain immediately to the general standard which is ultimately to be hoped for. The shortage of veterinary surgeons may be relieved, at any rate to some extent, by the employment under their super- vision of trained, but unqualified, laboratory assistants for some of the laborious routine duties which at present engage so much of the attention of veterinary officers.
185. The expansion of the veterinary service would have the advantage that the local authorities would be able to co-ordinate its activities with their own agricultural services. In particular, their agricultural educational staffs would be able to carry out an intensive instructional campaign among farmers in regard to the importance of the segregation and correct feeding of calves and young heifers and, generally, of caring for them under hygienic conditions. Co-operation on these lines between the veterinary and agricultural staffs would be of great value and would play an important part in the prevention of the occurrence of disease.
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(b) A scheme for the eradication of bovine tuberculosis.
186. We have seen that the only remedy, even tolerably complete, for the condition into which our dairy industry has been allowed to fall, is the complete eradication of bovine tuberculosis from the herds, and that there is need for immediate action. The limiting conditions of such action at the outset are the lack of trained veterinary staff and the shortage of healthy cows available to replace those infected. The uncoordinated initiative of individual farmers under the stimulus of higher prices for pure milk at a rather distant future will not of itself create the necessary conditions for any general advance. It is therefore essential in our view that the Ministry of Agriculture, as the central authority in England and Wales, should take an active hand in planning and subsequently in directing the campaign for eradication, especially in its early stages. Apart from more veterinary officers, the primary necessity is to stimulate the breeding of clean young stock in suitable districts for sale to farmers whose herds, in the national interest, ought to be cleaned up first. These are first the breeding herds most suitably situated for eradication and, next, the producer-retailer herds nearest the great cities in which the call for pasteurisation is most urgent. It is necessary that the right farmers (and perhaps to some extent their landlords) should enter zealously into these operations. This cannot be accomplished by compulsion. Relatively large sums will be required in many cases for the purchase of clean stock and for the provision or adaptation of buildings, &c., for segregation of infected cows temporarily retained, and for new comers bought in, for even if purchased from tuberculosis-free herds they will require at least two months' quarantine before re-testing for final acceptance. Though the necessary capital will prove to be within the power of many to provide, the state should be prepared to give temporary financial help, on easy terms, in cases of proved necessity. At the same time, any farmer who is prepared to find the capital for himself should be encouraged to eradicate without state financial assistance, finding his reward by realising earlier a higher price for his milk or, in the case of breeding herds, the good prices at which, under the stimulated demand, he will sell his young stock. But in the interests of the progress of the scheme as a whole, it will be necessary at the beginning to give to the herds specially selected for assistance, a prior claim to the services of the limited veterinary staff available. Our terms of reference do not admit of our dealing with the problem of tuberculosis in beef cattle. Owing to the way in which such cattle are reared, the incidence of the disease among them is probably lower than among dairy cattle, though where climatic conditions compel the housing of the cattle in winter it is by no means negligible. Where calves are reared on unpasteurised skimmed milk from creameries, tuberculosis among them is common. When most of the dairy herds have been freed of tuberculosis and the problem is to clear up the remainder, the question of beef herds will also have
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