494 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



In the affected district all cattle movements, both in 

 and out, must be suspended, all fairs, markets, etc., with- 

 held. The movements within the area must be confined 

 entirely to horses by special movement license, and even 

 that, so far as it is possible, should be restricted to high 

 roads, avoiding farms, commonage, and pastures. The 

 sole object of this is to prevent these animals being a 

 possible means of distributing infected dung through the 

 medium of their feet. 



In a word, the infected district must be regarded as a 

 town in a state of siege, with all its inconveniences and 

 none of its risks. 



This means an amount of self-sacrifice that many people 

 dislike to make, but it is necessary, and the results of such 

 a rigid system as has been described above, would be to 

 localize the plague to affected places only. 



In a country like the United Kingdom it is too much 

 to hope that a single case of the disease would occur; a 

 few finding their way in would infect all those places they 

 have passed over between the port of debarkation and the 

 farm on which they were eventually attacked. The rail- 

 way company should therefore direct their attention to the 

 thorough disinfection of all rolling stock used for cattle, 

 which had recently been into the infected district. It 

 might even be possible to trace the affected truck, by 

 knowing the date of arrival of the affected animals at 

 their destination. 



If the animals were driven over any highway it is 

 obvious this is a possible source of infection, but by 

 stopping the movements of all cattle in the affected district 

 the risk from this is greatly reduced. 



No stone should be left unturned to stop every source 

 of leak; it is neglect of the small, and, to the outside 

 observer, apparently unimportant points which may defeat 

 the best conceived measures of eradication. In South 

 Africa the disease was spread by allowing the natives to 

 utilize the flesh of the destroyed animals. Foot and mouth 

 disease was repeatedly introduced into this country from 



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