THE MENACE OF TUBERCULOSIS.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 656, 4 March 1909, Page 4

THE MENACE OF TUBERCULOSIS.

DISEASE RAMPANT. AMONGSE PIGS. LACK OF GOVERNMENT ' INSPECTION. A SERIOUS POSITION. HOW IT OAN BE MET.

It is common knowledge that ln>*genumbers of the pigs sent to the' baoon factories of the Dominion l suffer from tuberculosis. That faot is in itself disquieting; it is doubly bo iu view of the faot'that the Government recently withdrew its inspectors from the bulk of the factories, and that, therefore, the inspection is now left to the companies. It is not suggested that the oompanies are doing without inspection, but' that their inspection is not so rigid as was the Government inspection is a strong presumption from the traiu of events whioh led up to the' withdrawal of that inspection, which resulted- practically from an ultimatum issued by the companies that they wonld dose down if this were not done. HEAVY LOSSES.

At the beginning of the year the Government inspection was made \ very stringent, and the result waß that about one pig in every six was condemned. These figures relate to the inspection at Woodville, to whioh pigs are drawn from all along the West Coast The value of each baoon pig at Woodville is about £2 10s, and on the ; condemned pigs above lOOlbs. .in weight the Government allows 10s. The loss, therefore to the companies on eaoh pig condemned was about £2, and as pigs were being condemned at the rate of 100 a week at Woodville the monetary loss was £2OO weekly. 1

TUBERCULOSIS RAMPANT. The statement that one pig in every six is tubercular sounds alarming enough, but in reality it does not give an adequate impression of the prevalence of tuberoulosiß. in pigi, Only the pigs in whioh the disease was generalised were being condemned wholly at Woodville; in the case of pigs where the disease was localised, in the throat, for instance, the part was removed and the rest of the pig was allowed to eo through the ouring process. One in six, therefore, only represents the proportion of pigs in whioh the disease has beoome generalised; the proportion in whioh tho disease exists but lias not become generalised is much larger, and brings the total percentage of. tubercular pigs to a somewhat appalling figure. So heavy were the losses of the companies under the rigid Government inspection that the industry was threatened, and it was decided, rather than risk this, to cancel their registration licenses, and withdraw the Government inspectors. is there Danger?

Not only is it possible'for pigs to go through the baoon factories without Government inspection but it is quite open for farmers to kill on the farm and sell his pigs to anyone, butcher or otherwise, who will buy. In the light of these facts it beoomes a matter of some interest to what extent taberoular pigs are a menaoe to the public health. Expert opinion seems to be that there iB no danger so long as pork or bacon is not eateu raw. The'heat to whioh the flesh of the pig is exposed during the process of cooking will, it is maintained, kill the tuberculous bacilli. It is ourioua to note that there might be danger in eating raw baoon if it were made from a tuberonlonspig. It has not' been definitely proved that the process of curing kilh all the bacilli. Any that survive are, however, killed by the cooking piocess.

TO COMBAT TUBERCULOSIS, WHAT IS THE CURE? THE FOOD AND THE YARD. It has boon so long urged that no effective atopa can be taken to oheok the spread of. tuberculosis amongst pigs until the skim-milk on which they are principally, sometimes almost wholly, fed is sterilised that many dairymen who are usually wellinformed would show no surprise if an attempt were made neat session of Parliament to make the sterilisation of skim-milk and whey compulsory, With a view to finding out tlieprotaWe cost of this process a Times" representative interviewed a number of gentlemen who are conversant with the subject. ' • WHAT IS PEDED.

The first whom our representative approaohed was a dairy faotory manager, but he begged to be exoused rrom making any estimate of the ooßt of sterilisation until it was definitely settled what an effective prooess of sterilisation involved, The cost of k pasteurising plant, he said, would be from £3O to £l5O, so that the first oost would not be very seiious. The working cost would however, vary very muoh according to the length of time required in the Won and the heat to which the milk had to be raised, He was not quite sure that to effectively kill the bacilli and the spaws it would not be necessary to heat the milk and allow it to cool and heat again. The length of time for which it would be necessary to hold tlw milk at a given temperature was also important, and it U was neoessary to'Btore the milk for any length of time the oost would be greatly inoreased, as storage accommodation would have to b provided. Again the oost would vary according to the number of oreameries that would have to be equipped with plants, A company with seven or eight creameries would find the oost considerably greater than a company whioh had only to equip the faotory. ESTIMATES OP THE OOST.

Two Government inspeotors were subsequently interviewed on the points raised. One said that effective sterilisation could be obtained bv im B i ng ion ? ilk to a temperature of 170 or 180 degrees for five or tea minutes. Another said that a tem«nnconre ? f ?} 2 degrees would be three minutes to ensure complete sterilisation. The latter gentleman said that lie had given some consideration to the question of post and his estimate' was a, that a was aware that the oost had been estimated by a competent authority at a halfpenny but he was inolined to think from his own investigations that, this was a high estimate.

IS IT PH'AOTIOABJjE?

Those connected with the dairying industry do not appear to relish the prospect of sterilising skim-milk at these estimates of cost. A factory manager, when asked for his views on the subjeot, said he thought the cost prohibitive. He considered the value of skim-milk to be about a iialf-penny a gallon to the farmer. If the higher estimate wore correct, therefore, the wholo value of the skim-milk would be swallowed up in sterilising and even taking the lower estimate (which lie thought nearer the mark), it meant that tho cusfc of sterilising would be 50 per cent of the value of the article, He alsu said there was auother question involved wliioh was of tho greatest interest to fanners, but which did not enter into a theoretioal discussion, uaruely, whether the skim-milk would be deteriorated by sterilising. It was quite within the bounds of possibility that the feeding value of skim-milk would be lesseued, and if eo, this must be allowed for.

ATTENTION TO THE YARD. In tho course of conversation with. Mr J. W. Deem, Stock Inspector for the West Ooast district (who is not responsible for the statements made in the previous portion of this article) our representative asked for information as to how to prevent the spread of disease (particularly tuberculosis) amongst pigs. Mr Deem, after touching on the sterilisation of skim-milk, broko fresh ground. He stated a faotor that contributed to the spread of tuberoulosiß as much as infeoted skim-milk was inattention to the yard. Mr Deem urßed that as far as possible pigs should be kept away from the oow yard. He condomued tho practice of converting a disused oow yard into a pig-sty unless every precaution was taken to removo'all sources of infection. If a pig went nosing about a bail where a tuberoular cow hud been milked it ran a risk of being infeoted. There was also great danger from the excrement, in faot much' more ; than from the milk. The exorement of any tubercular cow would oarry the infection, but only the milk of a cow with a tuberoular uOder would propagate the disease. As only one per cent of tubercular oows had tubercular adders, Mr Deem said that there waß really more danger from the yard than the milk, did not. the mixing of the milk at the factory aggravate the danger from that source.

TUBERCULOSIS IN HERDS. ON THE DECREASE. The prevalence of tuberoulosis in pigs involves some very large considerations indeed. It may betaken as indicating anything but a satisfactory ootid itiou of the dairy herds of the Dominion, since the greater part of tiie. tuberculosis found in pigs is supposed to be transmitted more or less-directly from oows, and the prevalence of tuberculosis in the herds would be most disastrous to the butter and ohcese industry. When questioned on this point Mr Deem said that tuberoulosis in oows was a decreasing quantity and was much less prevalent than some years ago. Mr Deem leoallad the days when an inspector coulOide along a road and oount out a good percentage of the cows grazing ou the roadside as being alfeotod, without taking the trouble to oxamine them closely, so pronounced were the'indications. At one time he would oondemn as many as 30 or 40 animals at a time for this trouble; now it was rare to find three or four. In reply to a further question Mr Deem stated that the percentage of tubqroular.cows in the herds would be about four at the present time. Evory precaution wbb buiug taken to keep the disease down.

THE DEADLY (JERM. The figures given by Mr Deem and quoted above would seem to indicate that a very little milk in <doing a great deal of harm. On the one hand are the cows, oomparativoly free Mm tuberculosis, and on the otjier the pigs largely affeoted by it. 'The two principal sources of contagion are the yard and the milk. Aooording to Mr Deem's figures the quantity of milk carrying the disease must be very small. The unfortunate part of it is that a small quantity of milk has the effect of contaminating the whole of the skim-milk used ou the farms and of exercising snoh a baneful effect on the baoon industry,