CO129-562-12 Dysentry epidemic- recommendation to enforce compulsory pasteurization of milk 7-6-1937 - 17-8-1937 — Page 48

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carry out the advice of the veterinary inspector for six months in order that payment should not be made for the testing of a herd the owner of which is not prepared for any reason to proceed with eradication. If for any reason a local authority should decide to discontinue its assistance to an owner with whom it had entered into an agreement, it should be obliged to repay immediately the charge for the testing of the herd which would otherwise be repayable at the close of six months from the time of testing.

195. Any farmer would of course be free to undertake eradication at his own expense and without the advice of the veterinary inspector. He should be entitled to require the local authority to test his herd, if he could produce prima facie evidence of freedom from tuberculosis, though he should be liable for the cost of such testing at the standard rate of charge. On passing two successive tests at an interval of six months, his herd should become an accepted herd (see para- graph 197 below) and he would be entitled to all the privileges of other owners of accepted herds.

196. Herds the owners of which entered into such agreements with local authorities would be known as supervised herds. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries would issue rules governing the introduction of animals into such herds. The veterinary inspector of the local authority would give directions on such subjects as the isolation of reacting animals, the disinfection of buildings, the management of the herd with the object of preventing the spread * The of infection, and the segregation or sale of reacting cattle. sanitary regulations for temporary buildings for the milking of cattle in a supervised herd should be somewhat less rigorous than those required of more permanent buildings, as it is important that they should be constructed as cheaply and lightly as is compatible with public health. These regulations should be determined by the departments of health and agriculture acting in consultation.

197. Any supervised herd which passed two consecutive testa would become an accepted herd and would remain an accepted herd until a tuberculous animal was revealed, either at one of the periodic tests referred to later, or otherwise. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries would maintain lists of accepted herds and would arrange for them to be published on a county basis from time to time. The owner of an accepted herd would receive from the local authority a certificate of freedom from disease which he would be able to show to prospective buyers. The Ministry would also issue regulations governing the management of accepted herds, especially with regard to the introduction of animals into, and the periodic re-tests of, such herds. The regulations regarding the frequency of re-tests would

* For an example of rules which have been drawn up for the management of a herd in which an attempt is being made to eradicate bovine tuberculosis, see appendix 12.

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vary from district to district in accordance with the disease situation in each, but at the outset such tests should be made once every six months.

198. The principle underlying the regulations governing the introduction of animals into both supervised and accepted herds would be to prohibit the introduction of all animals except healthy animals from accepted herds. Until, however, a considerable number of accepted herds existed, this would be equivalent in many cases to the complete prohibition of the introduction of animals from the outside into a supervised herd. There is, indeed, much to be said for such a prohibition; but it would be necessary to relax this rule during the early stages of the eradication scheme and to admit cattle to the farm that pass the test, on the understanding they would not be admitted to the clean herd till they passed a second test at an interval of at least two months.

199. In addition to specifying the sources from which animals introduced into accepted and supervised herds should be drawn, the regulations would also govern the movement of such animals. They would prescribe that these animals should only be moved directly from one accepted herd to another, or from an accepted herd to an accepted market, or from an accepted market to an accepted herd, and that they should only be moved in vehicles either devoted exclusively to the carriage of similar animals or specially disinfected. Experience would doubtless suggest directions in which such regula- tions needed elaboration and extension. But we believe that it will prove possible to secure such cattle from the risks of infection while being moved, without subjecting the trade to a mass of impossible regulations. As the scheme of eradication develops it will become necessary to make stringent regulations governing the importation of breeding cattle from overseas.

200. An accepted market would be a market or part of a market confined to the sale of healthy cattle from accepted herds brought there in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Agricul- ture. The Ministry would also issue regulations for the conduct of accepted markets.

201. In the event of reacting cattle being discovered in an accepted herd in the course of a periodic re-test, the herd would immediately relapse to the position of a supervised herd. It might, however, be provided that if the reactors numbered less than, say, ten per cent. of the herd, if they were immediately removed from the herd and disposed of, and if, at a re-test, completed ninety days after the reactors had been removed, no further reactors were found, the herd might regain the position of an accepted herd.

*

* As the technique of testing improves, it may be possible to shorten this period.

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