TUBERCULOSIS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1303, 5 December 1911, Page 10

TUBERCULOSIS.

! . -TnE,.PROBLi:.M IN AMERICA. Tiibercn!osis| : ivliicli'has piven. veterinary experts and farmers considerable concern in this country, is a problem which is also :boing grappled with in thS United States.. Some light is thrown on the position, by the following-remarks bjvthe secretary of tho . International Dairy Show, Wisconsin;— "Tuberculosis is a great nroblein confronting the live stock industry. The prevalenco of this disease anions cattle has been shown by the work which has been done in Wisconsin during several years-past. in. an' effort to eradicato.it, and tlio disease' was found to Ijl> especinlly widespread in dairy herds. A comparativol.v recent estimate of the Department indicates that on an average more than II) per cent, of the dairy cattle in the United States aro affected with tuber-' culosis. "To assist the stock breeders and dairymen to eradicate tuberculosis and to obtain stock frco from this infection, what seems to bo a- good, plan has been proposed. namely, to organise a commission of prominent stockmon',' who will cerlifv to herds freo from tuberculosis, after this fact has been officially determined by tho United States Department. c£ Agriculture. Tho Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department, will apply tho tuberculin test nnd ascertain whether or not tho herd is' tree from tulKrculcsis. When a herd is found to be free, or after the disease has been eradicated to the satisfaction, of tho .bureau, this commission would then have' a sound basis for certifying to tho health of tho herd, and such certification would not. only enable purchasers to get healthy stock, but would be a valuable asset to tho. owners of such herds. "The following aro some of the features of the proposed plan: Tho detection of the disease by.modern and re!'able met'iV-; the elimination of the infectcd animals from the herd;, precautions against reinfection of tlio herd by subsequent purchases. of infccted animals; official recognition of the owners of herds of cattlo which arc free from tuberculosis; provi-' siou for the identification of individual animals ill such herds; establishment of an official register of all such cattlo and co-operation with tho officials of tho purebred live-stock record associations with State veterinarians. State live stock sanitary beards, and public health official*."