PURITY OF MILK SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21813, 19 June 1936, Page 7

PURITY OF MILK SUPPLY

INSPECTIONS MADE PERIODICALLY POSSIBILITY OF MISSING VENDORS Although several Government inspectors spend their time examining herds, utensils, and the milk itself, it is’possible that i>ome milk vendors escape examination for long periods. Inspectors take samples nearly every morning, but it is possible that some vendors are never seen by them, and as the same vendors may not be visited by inspectors on their farms, it is equally possible thfct milk is supplied from a herd unknown to the inspectors, and in cans and bottles not examined by other inspectors. Both the Department of Agriculture, which inspects the cleanliness of the herd and plant used in production, and the Department of Health, which watches the cleanliness of the mils, after it has left the larm, claim that more thorougn inspection is difficult, ana from conversation with on.cei.s ox both uepanmems yesteraay a reporter from “The Press” concluded that it was possible for a vendor to continue suppling for a long perioa wuhout inspection either of herd or of means of distribution.

“We Inspect everything on the farm, bv, as soon as the milk leaves the farm it comes under the Department of Health,” said Mr G. Blair, superintendent of the Department of Agriculture, “We cannot compel a farmer to have his herd tested at any odd time, but if we have any suspicions we can then make the test compulsory. “The human element comes into it,” he said. “Some men are naturally clean, and if we know them to be clean farmers they may go for long periods without their herds being tested or their farms in general inspGctsd/* The department had many stock inspectors in different parts of the district, he explained, and there was also a dairy inspector who was occasionally accompanied by a veterinarian. When herds were examined the usual tests were for tuberculosis and mammitis, “but those are not scheduled diseases and all the cows with them are not ordered to be destroyed. Last year about 6000 cows were found to be tubercular, but only the worst were destroyed.” , , A . . Questioned about undulant fever, of which there is at present a case in Christchurch, Mr Blair said that no test was made for that disease. “If it became a menace,” he said, “we would have to do something, but with so few cases it is not worth while doing anything. Besides, it is doubtful if all the cases we hear of are really undulant fever. If we suspect tuberculosis or mammitis we test th / ’ cows immediately, and we can stop the supply, but we cannot destroy the animals.” . , Once the milk leaves the farms its cleanliness is the case of the Department of Health, which has four inspectors on the work. Nevertheless, the senior inspector, Mr T. Pargeter admitted to the reporter yesterday tha+ it was auite possible that some vendors would escape inspection from one year’s end to the next. “We generally have one inspector out at a time,” he said, “and he takes 10 samples each day. He mav go out and miss a vendor time after time, and he may not see him for the whole year." There are 257 vendors in the eit' of Christchurch licensed by the Cit” Council, and licenses were granted to 301 shens last year. It was easy to get samnles from the shops, Mr Pargeter said, but a vendor coidd be in any one of a thousand small and be unseen by the inspector. Thi' was particularly the case when vendors emnloved boys to deliver the mi’k in cans. The list of licenses issued by the council was received bv the department each year, and as far as possible samples from all the supplies were tested, the senior inspector said, but even with the supplied list it wa« often extremely difficult to find any particular man.