asked the Minister for Lands and Agriculture whether his veterinary staff have considered the possibility of the treatment, with a view to cure, of animals affected with foot-and-mouth disease.
CEISTEANNA.—QUESTIONS. WRITTEN ANSWERS. - TREATMENT OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE.
The Deputy is presumably aware that in this country the curative treatment of foot and mouth disease is not a feasible proposition. The chief asset of the Irish live stock industry is the British market, which we hold only on the condition that when the disease appears in Ireland it is promptly suppressed. The only possible means of suppression is the immediate slaughter of all infected animals and of all animals exposed to infection. Fortunately the country has been troubled by the disease at very rare intervals, there having, in the present century, been only three visitations prior to that of this year, i.e., in the years 1912, 1914 and 1921.