VETERINARY DEPARTMENT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12937, 17 October 1907, Page 8

VETERINARY DEPARTMENT.

UNSOUNDNESS OF HORSES. THE TUBERCULOSIS PROBLEM. {WSCIAL TO "THE PMSe.") WELLINGTON, October 15. In this Department there is apparently still room for considerable improvement. One paragraph from the report of tho Acting-Chief Veterinarian proves this. He says (under date 13tb July last):—"The work during the past year has been principally of a routine character, the number of veterinary officers available for field work being very limited, and the absence of suitable buildings at the laboratory having prevented any experimental work in connection with the larger animals being carried out on effective lines. Combined with this as a deterrent has boen the absence of any residential accommodation at the laboratory for the Chief Veterinarian, he, liko myself, being compelled to reside at v considerable distance." ihe Department's expenditure ior the year -n\ts £lo,W>o, but tho sum of Jt&ltiy was recoverable as meat inspection fees. The warnings oi the Department in regard to coping with tho spread «t contagious abortion evidently remained too long uuhecued by the dhort-sigiited Taranaki farmers, "•so tar as kgal enactment goes," says the veterinarian, "wo are still destitute ot ths slightest power of dealing with the spreau of the evil, yet talis is the disease that absolutely coste the colony more solid caoli tnan ail the others put together. year 1 estimated a direct loss in produce that would have ueen available tor salo at a minimum of £IiW,(H)O, but now, with fuller Knowledge, 1 am positive that doublo that amount would be -well within the mark." 'Ihe report contains the following note regarding the necessity for legislation to prevent the transmission ot hereditary unsoundness in horses:— "When ono sees oJten in saleyards stallions and mares commanding high prices, although affected with euon diseases as would render them almost unsaleable at any figure in Europe, the futility of any endeavour is brought home to anyone desirous of making an improvement." The question of tuberculosis is dealt with at some length as a matter demanding most serious consideration. "The evidence available," says the report, "goes clearly to prove that oiw of the most potent factors in the diesemination and perpetuation of tubercular disease in the colony at the present time is infected cow'e milk. Proof of this ie furnished by the extensive amount of tubercular infection present among swine fed upon the byproducts of dairy factories. The returna furnished by the inspectors of meat at bacon factories and at meat export slaughterhouses, where large numbers of pigs are killed, show that a large proportion are found affected with tuberculosis, and moreover the situation of tho lesions of the disease points conclusively to the ' fact that the infection must have been contracted by ingestion. By far the greater number of affected animals are purchased in dairying districts, where their staple article of diet is separated milk or whey. Numbers of inspected pigs drawn from areas where dairy farming is not a staple industry, or where tuberculosis among cattle m comparatively rare,' are themselves almost entirely free from the disease. A disquieting feature of the whole matter is the conclusion that a large number of cows in the colony must be producing tubercular milk. This emphasisee the necessity for an. amendment in the Stock Act rendering the notification of all suspicious, abnormal, or recognised diseased conditions of tho adder'compulsory; also for a careful examination of the udders of all dairy cows coming under the immediate ! notice of inspectors. In this, really ! the most important consideration of all is the question of human health us affected by that portion of the milk supply of the colon; which goes directly into human consumption. Therefore, it is urgently neccmaiy that immediate steps be taken to effectively deal with the matter. It is futile to Mtpend money and labour in searching out and destroying adult tubercular cattle while each year's crop of calves is allowed to contract infection wholesale, practically without check or hindrance by legislative and administrative methods."