Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the administrative procedures for controlling danger to man through the use as food of the meat and milk of tuberculous animals.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Tuberculosis.
Date:
1898
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the administrative procedures for controlling danger to man through the use as food of the meat and milk of tuberculous animals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    12/502 (page 4)
    and undisturbed. It is not a reliable test when used on cattle in a market, or on any cattle that have been shipped, or trained, or otherwise excited. That has been found out since I made my report. Other observers have had similar results under similar circumstances. Unfortunately, the Royal Commission set apart a very small sum to test this question of diagnosis; J. think it was 1001. Tuberculin was only newly introduced then, and I could not get anybody who would submit his cows to the test. It was only through the kindness of Professor Brown, who allowed me to use the test on animals condemned under the Pleuro-Pneumonia Slaughter Order, that I was able to make the test. I got these animals in slaughter-houses, and, after they had been trained, or otherwise brought there, tested them. Then they were killed nexo day, and a considerable proportion of errors were found. But since that, using it on animals in their own premises, I have found that it is practically infallible. I have notes here of one particular case that I might put in, where in a dairy 25 animals in all were tested, and afterwards they were all slaughtered. There was only one animal that did not react, and it was the only animal not tuberculous when they were killed. We entirely accept these conclusions, and entertain no doubt as to the value of tuberculin, provided the test is applied by a competent veterinary surgeon, and that the tuberculin is of a trustworthy quality. Prevalence of Tuberculosis among British and Irish Agricultural Stock. 14. Of all the animals slaughtered for food in Great Britain and Ireland, those of the bovine race seem to be more largely affected with tuberculosis than any other. It is true that the Chief Inspector Ol the Veterinary Department of the Irish Privy Council said that he had recently formed the opinion, from his own observations during the slaughter of swine for swine fever, uhat tuberculosis was more prevalent among swine than among cattle in Ireland. But against this may be set the returns from continental abattoirs, where meat inspection is far more effective and uniform than in this country. For instance, the following is a return of the animals slaughtered at Leipzig in 1895, showing the number in which tuberculosis was detected :— Kind of Animal. Number of Of which were Tuberculous. Slaughtered. No. Per cent. Oxen Heifers Cows Bulls - 8,454 1,071 9,303 4,090 2,379 217 4,048 975 28-14 20-35 43-51 23-83 Total cattle over one year old - 22,918 7,619 33-24 Calves - 57,427 107 0-18 Sheep Goats Pigs Horses Hogs 44,154 207 111,077 961 24 13 3,041 1 0-02 2-73 o-io Total 236,768 10,780 In connexion with this, it is important to note that this disease can be readily communicated to swine by giving them uncooked milk containing tuberculous matter. Sessions, Should the herd become infected from this source, contagion might spread rapidly. 6809. gut? inasmucn ag the disease is much more liable to be communicated from cattle to pigs, than from pigs to cattle, we consider that preventive and remedial measures should be applied in the first instance to the bovine race. In sheep, tuberculosis has never been found to prevail to any serious extent. 15. The question as to the extent to which the herds of the United Kingdom have become infected with tuberculosis is one not easy to determine. Animals perceptibly Middleton, suffering from it, and betraying clinical symptoms of the disease, undoubtedly form a very small percentage of the whole. But of the number affected by the disease in