INFECTED FOODS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1212, 22 August 1911, Page 6

INFECTED FOODS.

REPORT OF COMMISSION ON TUBERCULOSIS. STRINGENT KEG ULATIONS SUGGESTED. Tho relations of human and animal tuberculosis are summed up in the final report issuoii on July 11 as a Parliamentary Blue-book of tho lioyal Commission appointed to consider tile matter.. The Commission was appointed in lilOi, and has been engaged in investigations concerning the theories from time to time propounded, and tins, their filial report, suiiiiiuut=m the results of their exuaustivo inquiry and experiments, ih the slatement now issued the Commissioners say:—

Three previous reports have been issued' by us. in the first (1904) the results of our preliminary investigations wero discussed, and it was shown that the bacilli tound in the ksions of certain cases of human tuberculosis produced in cattle a disease indistinguisnablo from bovine tuberculosis. In our second interim report (1!W7) wo dealt at soiue-length with uovine and human tuberculosis, and embodied in it the results obtained up to that date in; the investigations on the character of the bacillus of bovine tuberculosis and of tho bacilli- found in casas of human tuberculosis. .In the third in-t-Erim report (l!)l)9) we dealt with certain conditions of the tuberculous cow which rendered her milk infectious. In this, our final report, we propose to deal with the whole of our inquiry into tho tuberculosis of various animals. Three Questions. The questions that weie referred to the Commission for investigation and report were— "Whether the disease in animals and man aro ono and the same. "Whether animals and men can be reciprocally infected with it. "Under what conditions, if at all, the transmission of the disease from animals to man talces- place,' and what are tlio, circumstances favourable or unfavourable to such transmission.'" Very briefly put, the conclusion of the Commissioners with regard to the first of theso terms of reference is that there does not appear to be sufficient ground for answering the question in the affirmative. Tho Commissioners give the ground on which they arrive at their answer to the second, which is that somo other mammals and man can be reciprocally infected with tuberculosis. "The possible danger to man through reciprocity in this sense was, of course, the most important question presented to us, and, as we havo conclusively shown that many eases of fatal tuberculosis in the human subject have been produced by the bacillus known to cause the disease in cattle, the possibility of such infection cannot l>e denied, and tlie importance of this conclusion is not diminished by the fact that the majority of such cases examined by us occurred in young children, or by the merely local results following the administration of the 'human type of bacillus to bovine animals. Bovine animals are not completely , immune to the human tubercle bacillus,, and adult human beings can be infected with the bovino type, even the pulmonary form of the disease in man being sometimes caused by the bovino tubercle bacillus. Factors in Transmission. Transmission of tuberculosis from animals to man, they say, must obviously be mainly dependent on the susceptibility ot any given animal to this disease, and on tho opportunity afforded such animal for transferring its acquired and developed infection to the human subject. But animals, domestic and other, capable of sufferin" from severe tuberculosis of the human type aro comparatively few, and it is pointed out that the cow, however prono she may bo when the subject _pt bovine tuberculosis to excrete bonne bacilli in her milk, has never under natural conditions been shown to eliminate in this way the human tubercle bacillus. Nevertheless it' is not to be affirmed with confidence that" man is;whoUy free from risk through animal food of infection with Hint type of tuberclo • bacillus to which he appears most prono, though the decree of danger to him in this senso must remain, say tho Commissioners, for the present undetermined.. The pig, though not capable of fostering tubcrcle bacilli of the human type except m a minor degree, may be regarded as a possible source of the,disease caused in man by that type of bacillus, for the reason that particular glands of the pig body which are likely to enter into certain prepared foods do*on occasion yield tubercle bacilli of the human type.' Sources of Infection. Discussing possible sources of infection, the Commissioners say: "It may be asked in what way are children, who ar# especially liable to exhibit acute fatal tuberculosis as an abdominal affection, most likely to obtain a largo and fatally infective "dose of tubercle bacilli. To this question there can be but one answer —that the evidence which we havo accumulated goes lo demonstrate that a _ considerable amount of the tuberculosis of childhood is to bo ascribed to infection with bacilli of tlio bovine typo transmitted to children in meals largely consisting of the milk of the cow. In many cases of abdominal tuberculosis and in tuberculosis of tho cervical gland the child may b> injured through tho milk with fatal,. results. In all the cases of cervical gland tuberculosis investigated by tho Commissioners the patients had rcoovcred or were recovering after operation." The Commissioners proceed to say that although the potency of infected cow's milk as the cause of tuberculosis in infancy and childhood is clearly demonstrated, it is rarely fatally so in case of an -adult, which, if considered alono, might tend to discount tlio danger to the adult, not only of the milk, but also of' the flesh of such animals, but they investigated cases in which the disease in adults was sufficient to incapacitate tho patient for the ordinary duties of life, and the diseaso was solely duo to the effects of tho bovine, tubercule bacillus., Recommendations. "In view of 'the evidence adduced by us," tho commissioners conclude, "we regard ourselves as called upon to pronounce an administrative measure required for obtaining security against tho transmission of the bovino tubercle by means of food. In the interests, therefore, of infants and chijdren, the members of the population whom we have proved to bo specially endangered, and for tho reasonable safeguarding of tlio public health generally,. we would urge that existing regulations for tho supervision of milk production and meat preparation be not relaxed; that, on tho contrary, the Government should cause to be enforced throughout the kingdom food regulations planned to afford better security against tho infection of human beings through tho medium of articles of diet derived from tuberculous animals. Afore particularly we would urge action in this sense in order to avert or minimise tho present danger arising from tho consumption of infected milk. And in this connection it may be convenient for us to repeat certain facts observed by us in roferenco to the conditions tending to the elimination by the cow of bovine tubercle bacilli in her milk—facts in our opinion of such importance that they formed.the subject of a. third interim report. Bovine tubercle bacilli aro apt to bs abundantly present in milk as sold to the public when there is tuberculous disease of the udder of the cow from which it was obtained. This fact is, wo bolievo, generally recognised though not adequately guarded against but these bacilli may also be present in the milk of tuberculous rows presenting no evidoneo whatever of diseaso of tho udder, even when examined post-mortem. Further, the milk of tuberculous cows not contain?* bacilli as it leaves the udder may, and frequently does, become infected by being contaminated with the I'fsces or uterine dischargo of such diseased animal. We are convinced that measures for scouring the prevention of the infection of living bovino tubercle bacilli in milk would greatly reduce tho number of cases of abdominal and cei-vica,! gland tuberculosis in children, and that such measures should include (he exclusion frnm the fed supply of milk of the recojnisably tuberculous cow. irrespective of tho site of the disease, whether in tho udder or in tho internal organs.