144 MOZAMBIQUP: 



The districts of Lourenzo Marques and Inham- 

 bane were subjected to a policy of slaughtering- 

 out to deliver them from East Coast fever. As 

 practised in the Province, this is a system based 

 upon the principle of killing all cattle within a 

 radius of five miles of a centre of infection, 

 with no regard to natural boundaries. A study 

 of the introduction of the system leads me to 

 the conclusion that the Veterinary Section of 

 the Department of Agriculture was first estab- 

 lished, not so much to investigate the local 

 circumstances with a view to arriving at a 

 conclusion as to what line of action should be 

 taken to combat East Coast fever, as to give 

 effect to a set policy — namely, slaughtering-out — 

 previously decided upon. Slaughtering-out is the 

 most drastic and unscientific policy possible to 

 conceive, and before it was put into practice, all 

 other possible systems should have been well 

 considered. For instance, on an outbreak being 

 discovered I think that a policy of isolation 

 should first be tried. This entails the visit of 

 a veterinary surgeon to the spot to examine into 

 all the circumstances ; to put the herd in 

 quarantine, stop all movements of grass and 

 hay from the infected kraal, and all movements 

 of cattle within a radius of a mile or so till the 

 infected herd had been securely fenced in. The 



