DUNEDIN MILK SUPPLY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17148, 30 October 1917, Page 6

DUNEDIN MILK SUPPLY

FAVOURABLE COMPARISONS.

In the course of his lecture last night iri connection v:ith " Dominion Baby Week," Dr Champtakrap isaid he did not think that the Dunedm miik supply was responsible for more than a very tew cases of disease, excepting, perhaps, the gastrointestinal complaints of infants. He did not remember a single instance during the last six or seven years of an epidemic of any magnitude being traced to the milk supply, though ono was constantly coming across records of milk-borne epidemics in tho public health journals. Not only were wo fortunate in, this respect, but ckiring tho samo period ho had been struck on moro than one occasion by the way in which epidemic diseases which were , raging in others parts of tho dominion, both north, south, and west of Dunedin. seemed to pass us by, except for a relatively few cases. Ho could not offer an explanation, but a striking example of this fact was before us at present. Diphtheria had been very prevalent throughout New Zealand during the winter. Southland, had been particu larly unfortunate, and there had been numerous cases in many parts of the Otago province, from Oamaru southwards. We would expect Dunedin, with its relatively largo population, to have hkd a considerable number of cases, and yet, so far, we had escaped with comparatively few. It vas a matter for sincere thankfulness that tho infants of this dominion had , eo little to fear from the milk supply, as far as tuberculosis was concerned. He could not give accurate particulars for the rest of tho dominion, but they had been working at the subject off and on for some yeais in his laboratory at tho Medical School, so that,- as far as Dunedin was concerned, he could speak with some confidence. Anyone who wa;s ifamiliar with Edinburgh must havo been struck by the relatively largo number of young people of the poorer classes who had suffered, or were suffering, from tuberculosis of the glands of the neck. A similar observation in Dunedin was almost barren of result —we saw very little of this typo of tuberculosis. Much exhaustive research work in Edinbnrgh and other centres had led to the conclusion that much of tho juvenile tuberculosis in that oily was due to tho ingestion of tho milk, of tnberculous cows? Two outstanding features which supported this conclusion were: (1) Tho fact that £0 per cent, of tho milk samples examined were found to contain living and virulent tubercle bacilli; and (2) tho fact that the great majority of the cases of juvenile tuberculosis in that city were found to be duo to the bovine typo of tubercle barillas, which children would naturally ingest with infected milk. Another investigation showed that of those infected with tuberculosis, 77 to 90 per cent wero bottle-fed babies — that was, they were fed on infected cow's milk. In Manchester, Professor Delepine, who had devoted much time to this subject, had reduced the percentage of tuberculous milk samples from 17 per cent, in 1892 to 6 per cent in 1907, while the figmres for the London County Council worked out at 11.6 per cent, of tuberculous milk samples. Was it any wonder that 11.000 children under five years of v age died every year from tuberculosis in Great Britain—that was, that section of the community which depended most upon milk for nourishment? This worked out roughly at 244 infants per mil-, lion of the population. It was refreshing to compare our position in New Zealand with that jnst outlinedi in Great Britain. He was informed by Dr Reakes, the Chief Veterinarian, that numerous samples of milk had been examined by the live stock division of tho Agricultural Department from tho various centres, and these generally from suspected herds or those supplyms institutions, and of all the samples of milk thus examined nono had been found to coatain living tubercle bacilli. In Dunedin they had examined in his laboratory the milk from 100 of the herds supplying the city with milk, and in only one case wero living tubercle bacilli found. As a controlling experiment they had during the last live years worked out the typo of tubercle bacillus (i.e., human or bovine) infecting all children who had come tinder their notice as suffering from tuberculosis, and in contra-distinction to Edinburgh they found that the majority wero infected by the "human typo of bacillus. In other words, they had been infected by human beings and not by milk. Those most competent to give an opinion knew that the system of inspecting of cattle, especially dairy cattle, was much more stringent in Now Zealand than elsewhere, and it was kept up year in and year out. This had the effect of weeding out tuberculous cows from among the herds supplying milk to tho public, before tho disease progressed sufficiently to seriously infect the milk supply. If wo examined tho statistics for New Zealand, we found that the deaths from tuberculosis in children under five years of age, were only about 60 per million of the population, as compared with rM per million \ for Great Britain. Ho thought theso facts and figures would convince anyone that whatever faults tho Dunedin milk supply might liave, it was certainly not a factor of any importance in tho spread of juvenile tuberculosis. Jlo had attempted to show by a series of contrasts tho importance of a good, safe, and fresh milk supply, and how tho dairyman, the middleman, and tho consumer could, help in this respect. How _ then, was this desirable end to bo attained? Regulations and inspection would help, bnt without the intelligent co-operaiiou of tho dairyman they would" not solve tho problem. Dr Champtaloiip illustrated by means of slides where an improvement might be effected, and in conclusion said they had seen that if one looked at tho matter intcliigtmtly, tho means of avoidir-g the ?1 effects of a doubtful milk supply wero comparatively simple and effective "if we ooufct ensure tho proper training , and co-operation of all those who handled tho supply, and tie application of a little elementary knowledge and commonsense in the household.