604 Circular Letter as to Swine-Fever, [oct., 



the compulsory keeping of registers by pig-dealers, owners of boars, 

 and castrators; (b) the cleansing and disinfection of vehicles used for 

 the conveyance of swine to markets; and (c) the extension of the dura- 

 tion of movement licences; provision is made as to cleansing and 

 disinfection by castrators of swine, and the requirement of the con- 

 veyance of swine in a float, cart, or van while being moved with a 

 licence (Form D) under the Swine-Fever (Regulation of Movement) 

 Order of 1908 is dispensed with. 



3. In pursuance of Recommendation No. (viii) of the Committee, 

 arrangements have been made by the Board with H.M. Stationery 

 Office for the placing on sale of the principal forms used in connection 

 with the Board's Orders under the Diseases of Animals Acts. Par- 

 ticulars as to the forms and their prices can be obtained on application 

 to The Controller, H.M. Stationery Office, Storey's Gate, Westmin- 

 ster, London, S.W. 



4. With a view to give effect to Recommendations Nos. (vii) and 

 (ix) as to the granting of licences, the interchange of declarations, and 

 the collection of licences after use, the Board suggest that steps should 

 be taken by Local Authorities, where this has not already been done, 

 so that the executive duties — as distinct from professional duties falling 

 to be performed by veterinary inspectors — in connection with the ad- 

 ministration by Local Authorities of the Diseases of Animals Acts and 

 Orders made by the Board thereunder should be carried out by the 

 Police, acting as Inspectors of the Local Authority under the direction 

 of the Chief Constable as Chief Inspector. These executive duties 

 include, in addition to those imposed by section 43 of the Act of 1894, 

 the service of notices, the issue of licences, the supervision of the 

 detention of animals, and the supervision of the disposal of the carcases 

 of animals affected with or suspected of scheduled diseases. In the 

 case of County Local Authorities, it is desirable that every Police 

 Constable should be appointed as an Inspector for the purpose, at any 

 rate, of the issue of licences for the movement of animals, in order 

 to minimise as far as possible any inconvenience when the owners of 

 swine have occasion to move them. The arrangements suggested 

 would, moreover, facilitate the systematic checking of declarations, and 

 the collection of licences after use. 



5. As regards Recommendation No. (xi), I am to say that the 

 desirability of veterinary supervision over all public sales of swine has 

 formed the subject of communication between the Board and Local 

 Authorities on various occasions, and it was with a view to make such 

 veterinary supervision moie effective that the Board in the Swine-Fever 

 Order of 1894, and again in Article 15 of the Swine-Fever Order of 

 1908, empowered Local Authorities to make Regulations as to the 

 entry of swine into markets and sale-yards in their Districts. The 

 apparently negative results that have sometimes followed the veterinary 

 supervision of swine at public sales and the cost of such supervision 

 have, in certain instances, been urged by Local Authorities as a reason 

 for the discontinuance of veterinary inspection in cases where for a 

 time it had been undertaken, but the absence of disease in markets at 

 which a veterinary surgeon attends clearly shows, in the Board's 

 opinion, that the presence of a veterinary inspector acts as a valuable 

 deterrent against the exposure of diseased animals, and that the object 



