PURE MILK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17218, 8 December 1923, Page 1

PURE MILK.

CITY SUPPLY NEEDEDDR BLACKMORE’S WARNING Of all the cases of tuberculosis that occur in children, twenty-five per cent are due to infected milk. Of all the cases of bone, joint and abdominal tuberculosis that occur in children, nearly all are due to infected milk. Tn the town one body only should be responsible for the distribution of milk, and that body a public body. Given a pure milk supply we could look forward with confidence to the practical elimination of bone, joint and abdominal tuberculosis among children. These were some of the more notable of a number of important statements made to a reporter .yesterday by Dr G, J Blackmore, Superintendent of the Cashmere Sanatorium, on the subject of a pure milk supply ’The British. Medical Association,”, said Dr Blackmore, “has asked the Hospital Board to provide more accommodation for bone and joint tuberculosis cases, which are said to be on the increase If that increase has taken place it should never have been al- «•>' ed to do so, because the disease is preventable

“Of all the cases of tuberculosis that odcur in children, that’ is. including the disease in the lungs as well as in other parts of the body, about 25 per cent are due to infected milk. Of those cases that occur in the bones, joints and abdomen nearly all are due to'milk." _

Dr Blackmore emphasised his statement by repeating it in another way The disease.” he said, “may attack any. part of the body. Of all the cases’ that occur,. no matter in what part of the body, 25 per cent are due to milk, leases in the bones, joints and abdomen are nearly all due to milk. As milk is. the cause of the increase.it is the milk supply that -should be attended to so as to ensure the -delivery of pure milk to the consumers. It was rumoured some time early last year that an order had been given to relax the regulations with regard to the inspection and supervision of dairy herds owing to financial stringency- I do not know that -is really the case, but, when the statement was made, it was not contradicted. If such an order was given it signed the death-warrant of a large number of young children, because tuberculosis automatically increases as the supply of contaminated milk becomes greater. What seems to be certain is that whatever inspection apd regulation takes place in respect to City-dairy .herds there is practitally no supervision at all of country . herds. Yet the city dairymen draw their cows from these same country herds. "I understand the Health Department has nothing to do with tjie control of the milk supply until the milk is actually delivered to the consumer. L p to that point everything is in the hands of the Board of i Agriculture, which means that there is dual control always a pernicious thing. If pure milk is to be obtained, for the consumers there must be strict inspection and supervision right from the cow. including her surroundings, to the time that the milk is delivered at the door of the consumer.

c " ab ' e th p delivery of pure milk to be brought about I think the production of the milk should continue to be left in the hands of private producers but that in the toon one body only should be responsible for its distribution and that body a public body Ihe producers should. I think, all de. liver their supplies at one or more municipal depots and should then have nothing more to do with the milk. The municipality should be responsible for the testing, grading and delivery of the milk, and no milk should be accepted from any producer unless his dairy and dairy herd ore under the most stringent and constant supervision. Given a really pure milk supply we could look forward with confidence to the practical elimination of bone and joint and abdominal tuberculosis among children.

Ten years ago. said Dr Blackmore. there was an agitation in Christchurch with regard to providing a pure milk supply. Letters were written to the newspapers and so forth. ‘The sole result. ’ he said, “is that apparently we have a less pure supply now than we had then.’’

Dr Blackmore showed what grave reason there is for supposing that a big percentage of the milk consumed in Christchurch is impure. “The Hospital Board decided some years ago.’* he said, “on the recommendation of a tuberculosis conference in ‘Wellington to supply milk to its institutions only from herds that had been tested for tuberculosis. The hospital had an ex eellent man supplying milk and we were equally fortunate up here. Both men were capable men, and looked after their dairy herds very well indeed and did their best to buy healthy cows! Yet. when these carefully selected herds were subjected to the tuberculin test over 20 per cent of the cow s that were supplying milk to the hospital were found to be tubercular, and near--35 per cent of those supplying milk lo this institution were found to be tubercular. If that was the case with carefully selected cows what is likely to be the condition of affairs among cows where no selection at all is made? “ The whole trouble,” concluded Dr Blackmore, “is the apathy of the public. If the public would demand and go on demanding that it should receivs pure milk for its children it would get pure milk, and it will not get it until it does so.”

Regarding the problem of raising pure herds Dr Blackmore said there was no reason why calves should become tubercular provided they did not get the milk of their tubercular mothers Calves brought up on pure milk would not develop tuberculosis He suggested that, in the purifying or the dairy herds the Government should . for a period of five years, pay the lull price of animals destroyed through being tubercular, and at. the end of that time pay no compensation, be - cauae by that, time the farmers should hare made their herds pure.