TUBERCULAR COWS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 57, 30 November 1907, Page 3

TUBERCULAR COWS.

: -'' RARE IN MARLBOROUGH AND ; v". NELSON. • : '■/'/. ' ' / ' ■ . ABUNDANT IN TARANAKL ■Mr ''Gilruth, Chief Government Veterinary Surgeon and' Pathologist, touched some vital ' spots in ail address to, farmers at the New ' Plymouth show. He spoke in considcrablo dotiiil' of the dread disease, tuberculosis, Which 'we are allowing ; to. overwhelm ourselves and'our, stock without adequate, resistance. He pointed out that human beings • contracted ! the disease from "cows in the • milk', they' drank, in the same way . as pigs contracted it iii the skim lnilk. The proportion of tuberculosis in pigs killed for food in'Now'Zealand, varied in different districts. ■Marlborough and Nelson wore tho cleanest districts, but Taranaki.was worse than tho ' average/ The following proportions had been ascertained:— • . Figs slaughtered. Tuberculous. Nelson ..." 252 j 1 Blenheim ... 170 • 0 Gisborno ... ••• 204: 15 Ilawera .88 _ 14. Marlborough: ... — Under 1 p.c. Mr. Gilruth referred to some of tho false theories once held in regard to tuberculosis. The theory that bovine tuberculosis was not 'communicable to man was no longer held. The theory that cattle living in tho open nilwould not contract tho diseaso was believed by himself until he camo to New Zealand. But he' did not. hold the. theory now. In tho thickly-populated countries of 'tho Old World tuberculosis was chiefly contracted by inhalation, but,in New. Zealand the chief source of contamination was food. In Britain half the cattlo were tuborculqus, and on that account tho breeders endeavoured- to make light of, the diseaso, becauso they wanted the world to 'buy thoir stock. But a good jiractice was springing up, undoi'7 which buyers .demanded a' tuberculin 'test. The condemnation and slaughter of diseased imported stock at tho ports of destination also had a, good influence on tho breeders. In Now. Zealand no reduction was being effectod in the proportion of diseased stock, and nono could be expoctcd till tho stock-owners themselves co-operated to promptly roport suspicious cases. Fowls Mere particularly subject to tuberculosis, and it spread through a flock with great rapidity. The symptoms most'usually noticeable in tuberculous cattlo were ''swelling of the glands of the throat, and in breathing when travelling rapidly.; He made a strong ■ appeal for'an active campaign against tuberculosis, mammitis, and other diseases in live stock.