TUBERCULOSIS IN COWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3773, 6 July 1926, Page 12

TUBERCULOSIS IN COWS.

Lecturing on tuberculosis, Dr. George Hilton, of the Dominion of Canada, said : “It is by far the most important disease of the cow, chiefly because of its wide prevalence a»d the ease with which in some forms the germs of the disease find access to the milk, and may in this way be transmitted to man.” There are no spectacular symptoms, but as a rule the disease is insiduous, chronic, and progresses slowly. Often it can only be revealed ty test. A dairyman who is keeping any cow which is tuberculous is committing a crime against himself and the general public, and infants in particular. There is the tuberculin test, to which dairymen may appeal at slight cost to themselves. Listen to what Dr. Charles H. Mayo, of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic of Roch ester, Minnesota, says concerning the eradication of bovine tuberculosis:

“I believe in pasteurisation,” he says tn answer to an inquiry, “but I also strongly believe in the eradication of tuberculous animals from dairy herds; this can be done by careful testing. The testing should be repeated twice a year unutil the herd is free from disease. This is the only safe way for children on the farms where pasteurised milk oannot be obtained. The majority of cases of tuberculosis in the neck, intestines, and abdomen, are found in children from the farms, and not from the city.” Farm fathers and mothers may well pause and consider these words of a famous surgeon who tells them that this type of tuberculosis is most often found on the farm. Does it pay to temporise and delay ? asks Hoard’s Dairyman, and continues: Of course, all children who drink milk from tubercular cows may not acquire the disease. It is even possible that only a small percentage of them will. But what sensible and loving father would refuse to'stamp out the Burning brand even though there may he only one chance in ten that it will set the house on firej Who would jeopardise in the slightest or Tun one chance in a million that his little boy or girl might be taken from him because ne was neglectful inp adopting reasonable precautionary methods? Many sad stories have been told. Here is one recently called to our attention, and almost any community can find a similar tragedy: A little farm boy of two years developed a swelling in his head. Local doctors failed to discover the cause and finally the child was taken to the State children’s hospital. There it was found that the trouble was due to tuberculosis. Every thing that science And tender oare could do failed to save the child. The parents, recognising the possibility of bovine origin, but heretofore neglectful, immediately had their herd tuberculin tested. Several cows reacted, among them the one cow whose milk had been selected for baby because the cow seemed to be so healthy. Postmortem revealed that this animal had a tuberculous udder.

Proof is not lacking that bovine tuberculosis, is responsible for tuberculosis in people, particularly children. For instance, a German commission investigated 84 children who had died of tuberculosis. Twenty-one of these, or one-fourth, had contracted the disease from bovine sources. Several years ago an investigation revealed that in New York City there were 300 children that died each year from tuberculosis of bovine origin, in addition to which there were many more that were permanently disabled through tuberculosis of the glands, bones, and joints, acquired from bovine sources. In 67 cases of tuber, culosis of the bone in children under 12 years of age, an Edinburgh investigation showed that 41 were of bovine origin. In the same city, dflt of 72 children with enlarged cervical glands, 65 showed an infection with tuberculosis of bovine origin and only seven with human germs. “It is evident from these results,” says Dr. Ra/vanel, “as well as those obtained from other workers, that the chief danger of infection with the bovine germ is in children and especially children under five

years of age. It is self-evident that practically the only source of infection in such children is the milk they drink.” This is the human side of tuberculosis testing but there is also the pecuniary side. Inter-state shipments demand tuber, culin tested cattle, and thinking men should realise the importance of stamping out bovine tuberculosis if only in the interests of their pockets. Infected cows are, in addition, less profitable than healthy cows. “It does not pay to feed tubercle bacilli.”