ZOO MILK SURPRISE

Southland Times, Issue 19898, 17 June 1926, Page 4

ZOO MILK SURPRISE

ONLY" CONDENSED MILK FOR ANIMALS. TUBERCULOSIS WIPED OUT. One little sentence from the London Zoological Society’s annual report will astonish the average mother and housewife, says the London Daily Mail. It runs— The complete replacement of fresh milk by condensed milk has notably reduced the tuberculosis. A little later the report states that Zoo animals used 14,592 tins of condensed milk in 1925—7488 sweetened and 7104 unsweetened. It was explained at the Zoological Gardens later that many animals, especially those with cloven hooves, were liable to epidemics of bovine tuberculosis. The antelopes seemed to die of nothing else. Yet they lived under very good conditions, and were given generous daily draughts of fresh milk. Then the fresh milk was cut off and the tinned variety substituted. A marked improvement followed, and the tubercle has been stamped out in the antelope paddock. Infected milk does not produce bovine tuberculosis in human beings, but it may lead to tuberculosis glands which have to be cut out, leaving badly scarred necks. The state of affairs in England is indeed strange. Uncertified ordinary milk is given to our children without question. The Zoo’s monkeys are protected from it.