Printed under the Superintendence of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY, KNIGHT & Co., 90, Fleet Street; STEVENS & SONS, 119, Chancery Lane; HARRISON & SONS, 59, Pall Mall; W. H. ALLEN & Co., 13, Waterloo Place; ALSO BY A. & C. BLACK, and DOUGLAS & FOULIS, EDINBURGH. Price One Shilling and Sixpence. Special Order relating to Glasgow, No. 449 Special Order relating to Leith, No. 450 - Special Order relating to the Port of Hull, No. 486 Special Order relating to the Port of London, No. 492 The Cattle Sheds in Burghs (Scotland) Act, 1866 The Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1867 (section 90) INTRODUCTION. IN the former Handbooks which have been issued from Plan of the the Veterinary Department, attempts were made to sum- Handbook. marise the chief provisions of the Act and Orders then in force, for the purpose of making them more intelligible to the Inspectors and other officers of the Local Authorities. An objection to this course is the fact that nothing of an authoritative character attaches to a paraphrase of the terms of an Act of Parliament or an Order of Council; and it has been deemed expedient to abandon the form hitherto used, and to endeavour to attain what is really the chief object of this Handbook, namely, facility of reference to every Object of the subject which is introduced into The Contagious Diseases Handbook. (Animals) Act, 1878, and the Orders of Council made thereunder, by means of a dictionary index which it is believed will be more useful in practice than a popular summary of the laws in force. The laws and regulations relating to contagious and infectious diseases among animals in England, Wales, and Scotland are contained in The Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878; The Animals Order, No. 523; The Dairies, Cow-Sheds, and Milk-Shops Order of July, 1879, No. 499; Regulations made by Local Authorities under powers given by the above Orders; and The following Special Orders which relate only to particular localities, Nos. 446, 447, 449, 450, 462, 486, 492, 507, 525, and 526. In addition to the dictionary index, a reprint of the Act of 1878 and the above Orders is given, as well as certain sections of other Acts of Parliament referred to. It has not been considered necessary to reprint the Orders defining parts of ports for the landing of foreign animals for slaughter or quarantine. United It will be observed that the Act of 1878 applies to the Act of 1878 whole of the United Kingdom and embodies two perfectly applies to the well-defined principles. The dictionary index, however, Kingdom. only deals with those sections which apply to England or Wales or Scotland. L 713. Wt. 1508. a 2 Principles on Trade in First, in regard to home stock, the Act deals most stringently with disease in the homesteads, and seeks to confine infection to those centres, leaving the movement of animals in the country generally as free from restriction as possible. Animals found to be affected with pleuro-pneumonia or foot-and-mouth disease or swine-fever in a market, railway station, grazing-park, or other like place, or during transit are to be detained, but those which have been herded with them are free to move as if no disease had been detected. Secondly, in regard to the foreign animals trade, the Act foreign animals, proceeds on the assumption that all imported stock is to be slaughtered at the place of landing, leaving to the Privy Council a certain amount of discretionary power, guarded, however, by strict conditions, to prohibit importation altogether from some countries, and to permit it under modified restrictions from others. The Animals Order necessarily follows the lines of the Act. Regulations affecting home stock. Notice of disease. Duty of owner or person in charge of diseased animal. Regulations extending to horses asses, and mules. Duty of Duty of Local Legislation for the prevention of the spreading of diseases among home stock may be said to depend for its efficacy upon the early detection of disease, and to this end the Act provides for the giving of notice of the existence of disease by the owner or person in charge. This notice is required to be given to a police constable, and is compulsory. In addition, The Animals Order provides that the person concerned may, if he thinks fit, also give notice of an animal being affected with disease or with any illness, or suspected of being so affected, to an Inspector of his district. He is further called upon by the Act to separate diseased animals from other animals not so affected. Any person neglecting these requirements of the Act is subject to a penalty. The above provisions of the Act relating to the giving of notice and the separation of diseased animals are extended by The Animals Order to horses, asses, and mules, except those under the charge of the Army Veterinary Medical Department. Having received information of the existence of disease in his district, no matter how, the Inspector is bound to attend and discharge the duties conferred and imposed on him as Inspector. Local Authorities, after being informed by their officers of outbreaks of pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, sheep-pox, and swine-fever, are called upon to make such inquiries as will enable them to decide whether or not the in formation was well founded. In cases of pleuro-pneumonia, sheep-pox, and swine-fever, a veterinary Inspector or person qualified to be such must be called to aid in the inquiry; in cases of foot-and-mouth disease the mode of investigation is left to the discretion of the Local Authority; but in all cases the inquiry, which is to determine the existence or Inquiry should non-existence of disease, should be as complete as possible, be exhaustive. and there is urgent necessity for the remark that no opportunity should be lost of testing the correctness of nia can always be an opinion by post-mortem examination: this remark, as to Pleuro-pneumopost-mortem examination applies especially to pleuro-pneu- recognized in monia, which disease can always be identified without risk of post-mortem mistake by any practical veterinary pathologist. examination, When the Local Authority are satisfied of the correctness Declaration of of the Inspector's declaration of the existence, present or infected place. past, of pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, sheeppox, or swine-fever, they are to declare accordingly, and fix the limits of the infected place. an Inspector. It is important to notice that the Inspector's declaration Effect of a constitutes the place an infected place, and an infected declaration of place it will remain until it is declared free; but it has been ascertained during an investigation which has lately been made by the Inspectors attached to the Veterinary Department, that it is not unusual for owners of diseased or suspected animals to move them at once away from the Separation of rest of the herd before giving notice of disease, and to diseased from healthy place them apart in a convenient shed, which shed becomes animals. an infected place as soon as the Inspector declares the existence of disease. So far, there is nothing to which exception can be taken; but to complete the procedure, the Local Authority, after inquiry into the circumstances, Action of Local should, as a measure of common precaution, extend the fixing limits of limits of the infected place so as to include all the animals infected places. of the herd out of which the diseased animal was taken ; failing this protective measure, there is nothing to prevent Necessity for the removal of the rest of the herd in any direction. In including all fact, unless the Local Authority are scrupulous in the have been performance of this part of their duty, the intention of the exposed to Legislature would be frustrated. Authority in animals which infection. spector is only It cannot be too plainly stated that the action of the Action of InInspector in these diseases is not intended to be final or introductory to complete, but merely introductory to the more deliberate the proceedings and developed action of the Local Authority. Authority. As a general principle it may be allowed that an infected General rule place should be as small in extent as the circumstances will for fixing the |