RIDDLED WITH DISEASE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23289, 27 August 1945, Page 3

RIDDLED WITH DISEASE

Britain’s Dairy Herds 40 Per Cent Affected House Of Lords’ Concern “Britain's dairy cattle, lamentable as the admission may be. are riddled with disease.” This startling statement was made by the Earl of Listowel, Parliamentary Secretary. India Office, in the House of Lords in April during a debate upon the condition of Britain’s milk output. “Appalling damage.” he went on “has already been done to the health and efficiency of thousands of people, mainly in the rising generation. Unless these elementary facts are in the public mind, the Government will lack support for effective action.” Describing the measures the Government was taking to combat germs in milk production, he said that heat treatment of milk, properly carried out. which destroyed germs without affecting nutritional value, had been found the most effective, but no one method was adequate.

Viscount Bledisloe opened the debate by asking what was being done to augment the pure milk supply for the sake of national health and phvsique. Leading veterinary experts estimated that because of bovine diseases 200.000.000 gallons of milk were lost every year, involving dairv farmers in an annual loss of £20.000.000 Suggested Remedies

Milk consumption before the war was less than half a pint a day a person. In wartime it had increased by 30 per cent. The lowest target for the future was three-quarters of a pint a day. with children and nursing mothers getting rather mere. Incidence of tuberculosis in cattle was about 40 per cent over the whole country, and of the 152.000 herds the number attested and free from that disease amounted to one in nine. Among Viscount Bledisloe's suggestions for augmenting a pure milk supply were:—Compulsory health services for cattle: free State veterinary service: stopping the sale of milk from unattested herds for human consumption; and certification of cattle at sales. Lord Cranworth said that more non- I sense was talked about bovine tuber- ■ culosis than about any other subject. I He could not see how the figure of 40 I per cent was arrived at. as all cows were not tested. "It is said that 9« per cent of the human race have tuberculosis.” he declared. “Were your lordships to submit to a tubercle test it is quite safe to sav that 40 per cent of yon would react. “Yet I find myself surrounded with men who have riot only arrived at a fine old age. but have a full use of their mental and physical faculties.”

Dirty Milk Halved Of the cattle who reacted to the tuberculosis test, only three in a thousand were capable of passing on 'he disease through milk to human beings.

The Duke of Norfolk. Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministrv of Agriculture. said that all possible steps had been taken to maintain cleanliness and purity. During the last six months 12 per cent more milk had been produced than In the corresnonding months of 1939 to 1940. Eighty-three per cent of the milk producers had their milk tested every fortnight. In'December last only half as much was rejected as dirty compared with the previous year. It was difficult to get, In touch with the remaining producers because they operated in isolated places. The numbers of those who produced the lowest quality 7 milk had been reduced from 5.5 per cent to 3.7 per cent. Lord Addison said that until farms were provided with water to try to overcome cattle disease was attempting the impossible. 21 Years on Milk Lord Moran, Mr Churchill’s doctor, described milk as the keystone of the arch of national nutrition. “My father.” he said, “lived to be 81. and for the last 21 years of his life existed on a purely milk diet, eating and drinking nothing else. During half that time he practised as a busy doctor in a northern town, bicycling from patient to pa'ient." After declaring that the national milk scheme must become a permanent measure after the war. he said that the cow. like its master, had a housing problem. Half the country's cowhouses needed repairing, a third rebuilding, and there should be water and electric light in them. But even more important were the conditions under which the farmer and his men worked He urged the importance of research in farming, saving that the time must come when milk would be judged, not by its volume, but by its nutritional value.

Lord Geddes suggested that, in combating disease, there should be a union between the laboratory workers and the man tn charge of the herds. Disease Brought to Light Lord Teviot said that milk, though one of the best foods, was also one of th» most dangerous were it not carefullv handled. “A very eminent physician ” he said, "considers that milk bars, as they are conducted in most places to-day spread disease more than anvthlna else through milk.” Earl De La Warr said he could not agree that animal disease bad increased. Because of more scientific inspection. diseases were being brought more t 0 light- . , - ... Lord Listowel. deputy-Leader or the House, said that the Government could not be satisfied until the average consumption of milk over a Ion? period, which was now two-thirds of a pint a head, had risen to a pint. The Government desired to protect the public from unclean milk, and it was vividly aware of the illness and deformity which could be traced to the source'. It hoped in time to improve very 7 considerably on its present record in dealing with the problem.