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38
DISEASES OF ANIMALS
During the year the Borough was free from any cases of notifiable
disease although it was greatly involved in outbreaks occurring
outside the district.
Within the last two months of 1951, because of numerous outbreaks
of Foot and Mouth Disease in the country, the Ministry of
Agriculture and Fisheries made a large controlled area under the
Foot and Mouth Disease (Controlled Area Restrictions) General
Order of 1938 which included Acton. This area was still in being
on January 1st and during the whole of the year the Borough was
included in one Infected Area and four Controlled Areas which
lasted altogether for 134 days. The longest and last inclusion extended
from June 2nd to August 10th.
In the period up to May 7th, all movements of pigs within or
into Controlled Areas — except those from collecting centres or
markets — had to be licensed by the Acton Local Authority, and
this involved the checking of the applications to ensure that the
proposed movement was permissible. Owing to the considerable
numbers of infected areas within the controlled area, this was
rather a complicated procedure and entailed the completing and
issuing of over 2,000 licences.
After May 7th, the regulations were varied and it was then
possible for Movement Licences to be issued either at the sending
or receiving end. This relieved the pressure on the office and only
some 122 Controlled Area Movement Licences were issued locally.
However, during the inclusion of the borough in a Foot and Mouth
Infected Area from 15th June to 27th June, the licensing procedure
reverted to normal and over 800 licences were issued.
For the whole of the periods during which the borough was
included in the various areas, two additional inspectors were detailed
for duty at the slaughterhouse for the purposes of antemortem
inspection, receiving and examining licences and supervising
the cleansing and disinfecting of vehicles.
During the year, a total of 5,135 licences involving the movement
of 52,304 pigs were received. These animals were carried,
in some 1,700 vehicles which were cleansed and disinfected before
leaving the slaughterhouse.
These duties entailed the working of a considerable amount
of unavoidable overtime by the inspectorial staff—some 750 hours
—as the movement of animals took place almost every day and
all day often up to 10 p.m.