View report page

44
SECTION H
DISEASES OF ANIMALS
Once again the Borough remained free from any cases of
notifiable disease during the year although, as during the previous
years, outbreaks elsewhere resulted in the imposition of movement
restrictions on animals coming into Acton.
On April 8th there was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease
near Northolt and the Borough was included in the resulting infected
area. Because of further outbreaks, this area continued in being
until May 23rd. During this period over 2,200 licences were issued
by the department and over 17,000 pigs were moved into the
Borough on licence.
During the early part of the year there was an increase in the
number of outbreaks of swine fever in certain parts of the country.
In order to prevent the further spread of infection, the Minister
of Agriculture and Fisheries decided to impose restrictions governing
both the holding of markets of swine and the movement of
swine into, out of and within certain areas. The Swine Fever
(Infected Areas) Order, 1953, came into force on 27th April and
was not completely revoked until 20th November. During this period
over 30,200 pigs accompanied by over 4,200 licences were received
at the slaughterhouse in Atlas Road.
Because of the numbers of pigs coming in from one of the
infected areas, it was necessary to maintain the two additional
inspectors on duty from April 8th for the purposes of ante-mortem
inspection, receiving and examining licences and supervising the
cleansing and disinfection of vehicles until the Swine Fever (Infected
Areas) Order was finally revoked.
These additional duties, lasting continuously for a period of
229 days—almost twice as much as last year's figure—once again
resulted in the working of a considerable amount of overtime by
the inspectorial staff and this totalled over 900 hours.