TUBERCULOSIS IN PICS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 295, 7 September 1908, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS IN PICS.

HAS, THE GOVERNMENT BEEN LAX ? < MR. GILRUTH'S ADVICE UNHEEDED. ' j , With reference to the proposed improve- i inent in the present methods of slaughtering 1 pigs for human consumption, a representative 1 of one of the North Island hog-Killing companies complained to our "Wairarapa corres- , pondent. that under the present conditions the manufacturer was unfairly treated. Itwas not right, he said, that the manufacturer should have to bear tho brunt'of the loss on Condemned pigs. This item should be borne either by the Government or by the farmer who bred the animals. What was wanted was a system of Government inspection of all pig farms.. This could be very well done by the present dairy, inspectors. The pigs could bo inspected, and any that were suffering from tuberculosis should be ear-marked immediately With a Government stamp, and either isolated or' destroyed. While ho harboured tuberculous pigs, no farmer should be . allowed to sell his pigs. Insanitary and dirty , styes were largely, the cause of the continued prevalence of the disease, which was increasing. In 1904 the percentage of tuberculous pigs condemned at the inspected meat worts and abattoirs in the Dominion was 3.945; in -1906 it had risen to 5.89. He was aware of a case in tho Dominion .where, on a fairly large pig farm, the proportion of tuberculous animals in one season had been 30 per cent., and a largo number. of > them had been used for public consumption. In another instance, from another farm, the bulk of tho pigs received suffered from hot glands, which in many cases had been proved to be tho foreninner of consumption. He believed the Government had been somewhat lax over the matter. 1 In tho 1901 annual renort of the Agricultural Department Mr. J. A. Gilruth,' Chief Government Veterinarian, stated pigs, especially those fed, on tho by-products of dairy factories and more especially'offal from slaughterhouses, wero frequently found to be tuberculous. Mr. Gilruth went on to state that it was to be hoped that in the near luture a more comprehensive system of inspection of cows supplying factories would be introduced, In his report in 1903 Mr. Gilruth stated that it was more than ever apparent that inspection should perhaps be strictest in the caso of;swine slaughtered for human consumption. Ho pointed out that the opposite was the case, and amongst his suggested amendments of-tho Act, "was a clause that farmers should be placed upon the Bamo footing as butchers in regard to the Bale of pigs in registered abattoir districts, i 1,1 • ° su gS est ed that authority should be given to municipalities whose population did-not exceed 2000, to erect abattoirs. In his report in 1906, Mr. Gilruth referred to the extent of tuberculosis among swine as alarming, due greatly, ho believed, to milk containing the tubercle-germ, and ho then advised again periodic and systematic inspection of dairy cows supplying milk for human consumption, and tho sterilisation of skim milk before it is given as food to calves and pigs. In : his 1907 report Mr. Gilruth' practically went over tho same eld ground, only with considerably more emphasis. • Tho informant concluded by expressing the opinion that it would bo a long time before the present system of dairy inspection would result in a decrease of the tuberculosis ovil.