View report page

49
POULTRY AND GAME.—Of the poultry and game supplied, viz., 18,383
tons, the following table shows the sources of origin, viz. :—
Britain and Ireland 12,688 tons or 69.0 per cent.
Other Countries 4,559 ,, 31.0 ,,
31.0 per cent. was imported and 69.0 per cent. home produce.
BUTTER, EGGS, RABBITS, Etc.—Of the butter, eggs, rabbits, etc., supplied,
viz., 12,865 tons, the following table shows the sources of origin, viz.:—
Britain and Ireland 4,996 tons or 38.8 per cent.
New Zealand and Australia 3,942 „ 30.7 ,,
Argentina 365 „ 2.8 „
United States and Canada 195 ,, 1.5 „
Other Countries 3,367 ,, 26.2 ,,
61.2 per cent. was imported and 38.8 per cent. home produce.
BRITISH MEAT.—There was an increase of 511 tons of British beef and veal,
the majority of which was of excellent quality, and was sold at high prices, but
again, as can be seen by referring to Table No. 6, a large percentage was found to
contain lesions of disease, thus proving a continued lack of any systematic efficient
meat inspection throughout the country.
The new Regulations, which have been drafted by the Ministry of Health,
will come into operation on April 1st, 1925. Those require all butchers who own
private slaughterhouses to notify the Local Authority of intention to slaughter
any animal, so that an Inspector may be present at the time of slaughter, and
marking of all meat that has been inspected is suggested. Marking is adoptive
and not compulsory, but it is probable that butchers will demand marking so that
they may be protected from any prosecution, where meat that has been passed in
one district may be seized in another district: such cases have occurred. Where
meat has been marked, the responsibility as to any disease being found in it later
will pass from the butcher to the inspector.
ARGENTINA.—This country which supplied approximately 75.0 per cent.
of our beef and 18.7 percent. of our mutton and lamb, maintained its high standard
for the quality, grading, dressing and cleanliness of meat exported.
Again this year numbers of diseased quarters of beef were observed, the lesions
being generally confined to deep seated lymphatic glands.
126 quarters of beef (24 fores and 102 hinds) were destroyed for tuberculosis
compared with 59 quarters (13 fores and 46 hinds) for 1923.
A noticeable feature during the year was the number of sheep carcases which
contained lesions of Caseous Lymphadenitis. Hitherto, in meat inspection, it has
generally been considered that the lesions of this disease were confined to organs,
or to the lymphatic glands of carcases, but lesions were found in the bone and
muscles in addition to lymphatic glands. The majority of the lesions could have
been detected at the time of examination in the abattoirs by palpation of the
lymphatic gland region, e.g., prescapular, precrural and inguinal.
A total of 117 carcases were destroyed due to this disease.
The examination of ox-tongues was continued, with results shown in Table 7.
AUSTRALIA.—The quality, grading and dressing of Australian beef were,
with exceptions, still far from being in the same class as Argentine beef. The
improvement shown in dressing, mentioned last year, was not, except for a few
consignments, which were well dressed, maintained. Some of the consignments
arrived with the "bloom" gone from the beef. This was probably due to opening
hatches to add to the cargo. If so, this should be carefully avoided, as chambers
should never be opened after loading until opened for discharge. Many of the
quarters of beef were from aged cattle, apparently seven years old; such meat can
never compete with meat from cattle two to four years of age. The splitting of the