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73
SLAUGHTERHOUSES AND FOOD INSPECTION.
The number of Slaughterhouses in the district remains the
same as last year, namely, eleven. The license of one of
these has to be renewed every 12 months, and with this exception,
no other application was received during the year for a
license for the use or erection of a Slaughterhouse. Frequent
inspections of the Slaughterhouses have been made, and the
requirements of the byelaws with respect to the cleansing of
the premises, removal of offal, quarterly limewashing, etc.,
have been satisfactorily carried out. The visits, as hitherto,
have been timed as far as possible to take place while animals
were being killed and dressed for human food, but owing to
the Slaughterhouses being situated in different parts of the
district, and to the fact that killing is carried on at all hours,
it is only possible to inspect a small proportion of the carcases
prepared for sale in the different licensed premises. In several
instances the organs of animals were found to be unsound
owing to some parasitical or other local affection, and these
were in each case destroyed. No case of disease involving the
destruction of a carcase was discovered, nor was any case of
Tuberculosis detected either in bovine animals or pigs. This
latter circumstance was somewhat surprising in view of the fact that
the existence of Tuberculosis in pigs is common, and for this
reason special attention was paid to the carcases coming under
the notice of your Inspectors. The lymphatic glands which
are most frequently affected were incised, but in every case
they were found to be free from disease. In connection with
this matter, it is perhaps well to remember that a large proportion
of the pork consumed in the district is brought in from
the London Markets, where it has already been subjected to
expert inspection.
In at least nine of the local Slaughterhouses certain of the
carcases are occasionally inflated with air with a view to
improving their appearance. This method of dressing, when
the blowing is done with the mouth, is a particularly