Retrospect

Brit. vet.

J. ([963),

1190

I

B9

RETROSPECT SWINE FEVER

Swine fever has been a continual problem in Britain since records ofdisease have been kept. On 11th March 1963 measures to eradicate the disease were introduced and now all affected pigs and their contacts will be slaughtered and their carcases cremated or buried. Compensation will be paid at full value for slaughtered pigs which show no signs of swine fever and at half value for pigs which are diseased at the time of slaughter. Pigs will be valued by agreement between the owner and the Ministry or by an approved valuer but disputed valuations may be referred to arbitration. These new measures required some changes in the existing control arrangements for swine fever and the introduction of some new ones. An order came into operation on I I th March which prohibited the movement of pigs into or out of premises where there was swine fever. The slaughter or dressing of pig carcases on such premises was also prohibited. When diseased pigs and their contacts have been slaughtered, the infected premises will be cleaned and disinfected, and must remain unstocked for a period of not less than fourteen days. There is also provision for restrictions on animals in contact with infection. Swine fever infected area restrictions continue to be imposed where necessary but will be lifted as soon as this can be done without risk of further spread of infection. Vaccination with crystal violet vaccine may be continued for the present, but the future policy on this depends on the progress of eradication. FARMING

A major venture in agricultural publishing has been the appearance in four volumes of "Farming"* which should become a new standard text-book. The editor-in-chiefhas said that the objective has been to build a complete agricultural college which can be sent by parcel post and can be put in your own bookshelves. The authors have worked on three main assumptions. First, that the readers, the farmer and his counterpart in the ancillary agricultural industries and services, are as intelligent as the contributors. An attempt has therefore been made to present technical and scientific facts in simple straightforward language illustrated by numerous diagrams and photographs. The second assumption is that farming today is more and more the integrated use of the knowledge of specialists. The trouble is that the farmer, like the general practitioner, finds himself knowing less and less about more and more. This book therefore is an effort to marry specialism and synthesis, so that the reader can know more about more without becoming so confused that he finishes up knowing nothing about anything. One of the four volumes is therefore devoted entirely to management, which is particularly the integration of the use of specialist 'know hows'. The third assumption is that the day of the "drill-book" * Farming. A. N. Duckham, Ed. 4 volumes. London. Caxton Publishing Co. £[5. G

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farmer has gone. The accent has therefore been placed on principles so as to provide the material for intelligent action, and to avoid lumbering the mind with 'how-to-do-it' rules, which are not only hard to remember, but also soon get out of date. This has needed 80 contributors from research institutes, universities, industry and the Ministry of Agriculture. The youngest is in her twenties and the oldest, Sir John Russell, in his nineties. HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION

F.A.O. have made a special effort to interest the profession in the Freedom from Hunger Campaign's World Week, centred round 21st March. The campaign seeks primarily "to awaken the conscience of the world to a sense of its duty and responsibility towards the less fortunate countries" and to make it more generally realized that every day all over the world more people than not are hungry, and that ill-nourished people can neither work nor think properly. The Food and Agriculture Organization, by means of this campaign, also helps countries to be put in touch with areas of the world where the propagation of knowledge and skills is most urgently needed. To hold our own against hunger the world cereal production will soon have to be doubled and the protein production trebled. It is important however to realize that by far the greater part of the total effort which is being made to improve the lot of less fortunate countries of the world comes from within those countries themselves in the form of their routine activities. It is mainly through spreading and applying specialized knowledge that the Freedom from Hunger Campaign is of value. Veterinarians, by virtue of their calling, are particularly involved in this. AFRICAN FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE

Three further contributions to F.A.O.'s campaign to prevent the spread of an Mrican strain offoot-and-mouth disease to European livestock have been made. The United Kingdom has provided £82,500, in addition to an earlier contribution of 300,000 doses of vaccine worth some £35,000 already used in the vaccination campaign in Turkey and Greece. Finland has made a contribution, and Iceland, "the country most unlikely to suffer from any spread of the disease", has made a token contribution of $500. Other countries have of course contributed earlier. It has been said that a British contribution on the basis which had been recommended-two cents per head oflivestock from all the threatened countries -should be made only if the other countries of Europe were willing to provide money on the same basis. So far these contributions have fallen rather short of that goal, but in view of the situation, the British Government has agreed to put up additional money to enable F.A.O. to continue with this work. The disease, however, is still causing losses in Turkey. Unless further funds are forthcoming it will be impossible to continue vaccinating in Turkey and enlarging the buffer zone before the onset of warm weather when the virus finds a more favourable environment and the movement of animals increases;

RETROSPECT

it is essential that an expanded programme of vaccination and re-vaccination be undertaken in time. SHEEP PRODUCTION

More and more people are coming round to the view that intensive development of the sheep industry is necessary. The National Sheep Breeders Association have taken the initiative and outlined the functions of a comprehensive development body. They say it should conduct research and experiment on all aspects of production and distribution, encourage farm recording and progeny testing, provide services for productivity and health, investigate and improve marketing, promote sales and spread information and advice in every way. They have described in some detail the organization necessary and say that for it an annual appropriation of £700,000 would be necessary. They have already had discussions with other bodies which are or should be interested and have published a "sheep bibliography". * Although it can in no way be regarded as a publication for practical sheep farmers, there are probably some progressive farmers to whom it could be of interest, while it is certainly of value to research workers, teachers and advisers. The association wish to focus interest on the absence of any ready means of knowing what research and experiment is in progress or has recently been completed, on a wider evaluation generally of current research and experimental work intended for the advancement of agriculture, and on the possibility of extending the scope of bibliographies of this type so that they are of more value for spreading information. The importance of increasing communications between the agricultural scientist, who may not be sufficiently close to the practice of farming and its economic needs, and the farmer, who is not enough of a scientist to describe his problems in sufficiently specific terms, is something which the N.S.B.A. stresses especially. FOWL PEST VACCINATION

Disappointing use by poultry keepers From November 1962 to the end of February 1963 the Ministry of Agriculture sold some 44 million doses of vaccine which was purchased for approximately £230,000 and re-sold to poultry-keepers at just under td. per dose for about £88,000. But it is estimated that only 10 per cent of poultry-keepers in England and Wales have applied for vaccine, and that protection has been given to about one-quarter of the turnover of poultry in the country during that period. The organization representing the poultry industry, and in particular the County Fowl Pest Committees, have helped greatly in publicizing the use of the vaccine, but the response so far from poulty-keepers has been disappointing. The vaccine used is, in general, proving effective against fowl pest. There have been cases of vaccinated flocks going down with the disease, but this is not · Sheep Husbandry and Research (1939-1961 ) . Price 15S. Available from : NSBA, Station Approach, Radlett, Hertfordshire.

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altogether unexpected while such a high proportion of birds remain unvaccinated and where vaccinated birds are exposed to such a very heavy weight of infection as they are in some parts of the country. It has therefore been vital that many million more birds should be vaccinated if the risk of a serious spread of disease was to be avoided now that the slaughter policy has came to an end as it has from 1st April in England and Wales, except for any per-acute cases which may occur. Control of the disease will now depend upon voluntary vaccination backed by continued measures to stop the spread of the disease.

Restriction of movement to be continued Fowl pest will remain notifiable, and to control the spread of infection and to give the vaccination campaign the best chance of success, restrictions will still be placed upon the movement of birds to and from premises where outbreaks are reported. These restrictions will be maintained until there are no further symptoms offowl pest in the flock. It will still, in some cases, be necessary also to restrict the movements of birds on nearby premises, although the ministry will try to limit the extent and duration of any such restrictions and special consideration will be given to flocks in which a regular vaccination programme is practised. Where these vaccinated flocks are healthy it is hoped that it will not be necessary to restrict their "movement even if there is disease on nearby premises. Restrictions relating to infected areas will also continue to be imposed where the disease position demands it but, wherever possible, licences will be issued for the removal of healthy vaccinated birds from the area for slaughter. Prohibition of movement of any poultry from premises to which birds have been introduced within the previous month will, for the present, remain in force and the transport of live poultry and hatching eggs into Scotland will still be prohibited. The slaughter policy will continue in Scotland. EDUCATION

Cambridge have proclaimed their belief that there is a physiological basis for veterinary practice by electing Dr. A. T. Phillipson to the Chair of Veterinary Clinical Studies. It will be interesting to see how other universities fill the chairs which are vacant, and whether they follow the Cambridge lead or fall back on the traditional forms. CORRECTION

We regret that the last paragraph on page 92 of the March issue of the Journal was incorrectly worded and should have read as follows: "The proceedings of the Conference are published in this issue, with the exception of the papers on the toxicity of groundnuts, which will appear in the next issue of the Journal, and that by Professor Levine which was similar to the address he gave to the Annual Congress of the B.V.A. at Harrogate and has already been published in the Veterinary Record (1962), 74, 1394"·