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103
IMPORTED CONTINENTAL MEAT.
From time to time your Medical Officer of Health has reported on the
arrangements made to prevent the distribution in the country of unsound
meat, especially pork imported from Holland and Denmark, and in October
last the necessity arose for advocating the adoption of similar precautionary
measures on the part of the Belgian Authorities.
The season for Belgian pigs was just commencing, and already your
officers had made two seizures of pigs imported from that country that were
markedly affected with Tuberculosis. In each instance the carcasses bore
impressions in aniline ink from a rubber stamp, the meaning of which it was
impossible to interpret as the characters were blurred and indistinct, but it
was subsequently ascertained through the British Vice-Consulate at Ghent
that this stamp represented "Maldeghem," a village near Ghent, and was
probably impressed at the slaughterhouse on all carcasses leaving the district.
Hitherto these pigs came in small numbers, of which few found their way
to the City markets, and these only on Saturday. The firms dealing in this trade
are chiefly located at Smithfield, but their practice is to meet the boats which
bring their pigs and Ostend rabbits at some wharf down the River, and
receive their consignments into vans which are taken round to the various
provision dealers, who buy what they want from them, so that only unsold
articles of both kinds come to Smithfield, unless by special arrangement.
Both these pigs and rabbits are sent in closed packages, almost precluding
inspection by the officers of the Port Sanitary Authority.
It was evident, therefore, that the existing arrangements for preventing the
import of unsound meat from Belgium were unsatisfactory, and your Medical
Officer of Health advised that the Corporation should ascertain from the
Belgian Government if any inspection and marking of meat intended for
export is exercised by them, and, if not, whether they would favourably
consider the question of adopting a system of control similar to that obtaining
both in the Netherlands and in Denmark. This recommendation was adopted,
and the matter is now under the consideration of the Belgian Authorities.
With regard to the seizure in the City markets of unsound meat that had
been inspected and passed as sound for export to this country by the
Netherlands and Danish Authorities, the following Tables, prepared from
Returns kindly furnished by the respective representatives in this country,
show what a small proportion of carcasses from these countries are now found
unfit for food.