NO INFECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 98, 28 April 1938, Page 8

NO INFECTION.

AUCKLAND'S MILK. ' PUBLIC REASSURED. ECZEMA I\ION-CCNTAG!OUS. I DEPARTMENT'S STATEMENT. I City duellers need not lie afraid that j their daily supply of milk may be j infected because of the outbreak of I facial eczema in the dairy herds. This l ' statement wa« made by officials of the Department-of Agriculture this morning. It wa< explained th.it in the Hist place j eczema was not a contagious disease, hut L rather n dietetic disease, and people cl id , - not iindcrstiuul the difference. It meant : simply that eczema c >ul.d not b.- Pas-ted on to humans. The disease was due to a cci'tinn condition of fond and climate ! to which nil flic iiniinal.s affected were! subjected alike. j A simple illustration was given to i make the point clear. If 100 animals I diank water which had been poisoned, and they all died, that would not mean that the poison was infectious, but that each animal had oecome subjected, to the same condition. That was happening in the present circumstances, except that the conditions at present were not i poisoned water, but food and climatic, f conditions. The Department wished to ] fissure the public that (.here was no risk . of infected milk. Another point was that as soon as I a cow became infected it ceased to give ' milk, so that even if infection were pos- ■ sible it could hardly be passed on. ; Despite these facts, dairy inspectors ■ were constantly covering the areas j affected, and watching the herds. | Tt was also stated that there was j very little danger that there would be ; ;i shortage of milk in the city through I the outbreak. There was so little infection in the herds supplying milk to : the city that quantities of milk coming < forward were hardly affected. The statement l;<r the Department is j endorsed by the secretary of the Anck- i land Milk" Council. .Mr. Norman Chap-| man. He said that samples of milk j from infected and non-infected cows had.been given to th'ft council's analyst, I with instructions to subject the two samples- to a microscopic examination as well the til's ordinary tests. The result wa?, it-anything, in favour of the milk from the infected cow, said Mr. Chapman,, because that showed a lower bacteriological count. The examination . under the, microscope revealed no difference between the two samples. 'In. regard to the supply of milk, Mr. Chapman added, the council had been making inquiries. aH the week. As far aa .the. feUppty aspect was concerned the "poettionwaanot :. at all serious.., Some fartners' 'reported a ' slight infection; some none at all. Only one group had J herds badly infected. j