TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28930, 25 June 1959, Page 15

TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE

Many Herds Still To Be Tested

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 24. Since the Stock Act of 1958 made provision for the testing of dairy herds, 600 herds totalling 52,000 cows, had been tested and the tests had disclosed, apart from other cattle infected, 40 cows “so chronically riddled with clinical tuberculosis that they had to be destroyed immediately,” Mr A. C. Cameron, of Dunedin, told the annual conference of the Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand in Wellington today. The fact that dairy cows so infected had gone unchecked in New Zealand for so long affected the health of “your children and my children,” said Mr Cameron.

While large numbers of responsible stock organisations and veterinarians had registered and had checked tuberculosis among dairy herds, there was still an “innumerable number” of districts which had not applied for warrants to make checks under the act. he said.

If, on the figures for checked herds alone, it was not obvious that the matter was one of urgency, the mere fact that large areas were served with mlk from cows which might be infected should be enough for responsible persons to press for compulsory testing. The Government had given a good lead, but saturation testing of herds throughout New Zealand should “be implemented as soon as possible” in the public interest. The society adopted a remit asking that the Government scheme for the eradication of bovine tuberculosis based upon recommendations of the Veterinary Advisory Committee be actively implemented with a view to ensuring that the goal of complete elimination of bovine tuberculosis within four years be reached.