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95
In the present instance, the animals, having been rejected in
Germany, should thereupon have been earmarked, and it should
not have been possible thereafter to put them upon the market.
However, these same tuberculous animals, thrown out by the
German authorities, were examined, passed and officially labelled
at Antwerp, got past the English port of entry, and some at all
events were seized in various English districts.
It is not meant that there was any neglect at the English ports.
The staff and facilities are both inadequate for dealing effectively
with all the meat that arrives. The ten, per cent. examination is
a concession to the exigencies of commerce; any other method
is under present conditions impracticable.
Australian Beef.—Between September and the end of the
year, 2,828 hindquarters and 3,160 forequarters of Queensland
Beef were delivered in Finsbury and examined here for worm
nests. These worm nests ranged in size from a marble to a
walnut and were situated in the brisket, in the flank, and near
the stifle or knee joint. A few were found in the cod fat.
The number of quarters affected varied in the different consignments—in
some 80 per cent. were worm stricken.
These worm nests occasionally were placed superficially, but
oftener were deep down in the fat between the muscles—sometimes
at a depth of 1½ inch to 2 inches from the surface.
This fact led to many of these worm nests at first escaping
detection, so that there is little doubt many of them in the early
period passed into circulation and were presumably eaten.
Many quarters thus examined and passed in other districts were
found in Finsbury still to have worm nests, sometimes in abundance
in the deeper layers of the meat.
Many of the affected flanks and briskets had ulcers, surrounded
by eczematous areas—corresponding to the usual lick spots or
rub spots of the animal. These were probably the sites of the
referred irritation due to the presence of the worm, and may also
possibly have been the places through which the parasite entered
the affected cattle.