TUBERCULOSIS THROUGH FOOD.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue 4254, 3 July 1895, Page 5

TUBERCULOSIS THROUGH FOOD.

The report of the British Royal Commission on Tuberculosis has been issued. It says :—: — We have obtained ample evidence that food derived from tuberculous animals, can I produce tuberculosis in healthy animals. In the absence of direct experiments on human subjects, we infer that man also can acquire tuberculosis by feeding upon materials derived from tuberculous food animals. We think it probable that an appreciable part of the tuberculosis that affects man is obtained through his food. There is reason to believe that tuberculous matter, when present in meat sold to the public, is more commonly due to the contamination of the surface of the meat with material derived from other diseased parts than to disease of the meat itself. The same matter is found in the milk of cows when the udder has become invaded by tuberculous disease, and seldom or never when the udder is not diseased. No doubt the largest part of the tuberculosis which man obtains through his food is by means of milk containing tuberculous matter. The recognition of tuberculous disease during tbe life of an animal is not wholly unattended with difficulty. Happily, however, it can, in most cases, be detected with certainty in the udders of milch cows. Ordinary processes of cooking applied to meat which has got contaminated on its surface are probably sufficient to destroy the harmful quality. They would not avail to render wholesome any piece of meat that contained tuberculous matter in its deeper parts. In regard to milk, we are aware of the preference by English people for drinking cows' milk raw — a practice attended by danger, on account of the possible contaminations by pathogenic organisms. The boiling of milk, even for a moment, would probably be sufficient to remove the very dangerous quality of tuberculous milk.