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.

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    its earlier stages it is impossible to form any opinion,, owing to the absence of any satisfactory means of diagnosis other than the tuberculin test. The use of tuberculin reveals how greatly more prevalent is the disease in certain herds and districts than it is in others. Thus, the application of the test to a dairy Vacher. of 90 cows in Cheshire resulted, in no less than 70 reactions, showing that all but 20 403y (above 77 per cent.) of these animals were suffering from tubercular disease. Of six herds in the same neighbourhood, 63 per cent, were found affected. On the other 4041. hand, a herd of 100 Jersey cows (a breed considered by some peculiarly susceptible Sessions, of tuberculosis) in Sussex was tested without obtaining a single reaction, 68ol-2. Overwhelming evidence proved the greater prevalence of tuberculosis among dairy Field, 328. stock than among bullocks or heifers, owing, no doubt, to the close confinement of ^l^,'^031' cows during a great part of the year, sometimes throughout the year, to their greater 2122 &c. average age, and to the severe drain on them caused by milking. It is a common practice with cowkeepers to maintain a high temperature in the byres, which is rarely found associated with efficient ventilation. 16. One very serious feature in the distribution of this disease is its prevalence Hopkin, among high class pedigree stock. This does not appear to arise from any greater 7449. predisposition to the disease among highly-bred animals, but partly because that, owing to the high value of certain strains, cows are retained for breeding purposes much longer than would be the case in ordinary stock, and partly because, when young, they are commonly subjected to more artificial treatment than less valuable stock. The result of Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael's experiments upon pedigree stock, Carmichael, and of those conducted over a period of five years in Denmark under superintendence 6921-7058. of Professor Bang, shows how much can be done towards eliminating the disease from AppendixA., any herd kept under good sanitary conditions, by isolating such animals as react to PP- 350_3°3' the tuberculin test. 17. Several witnesses (both veterinary surgeons and others) expressed the opinion Sessions, that some breeds of cattle, such as Shorthorns, Jerseys, and Ayrshires, are more 6806-8. susceptible of tuberculosis than others, such as the Welsh breeds, Herefords, and 5^ in' Highland cattle. No doubt they were speaking accurately from the result of their Marsden, observations, but a careful comparison of the facts collected during our inquiry, over 2124, &c. a very wide and varied field, has convinced us that the chief element in immunity from Stephenson, tuberculosis is to be found in the conditions under which cattle are reared and kept. Shorthorns, Jerseys, and Ayrshires are the principal dairy breeds in this country; dairy ' cows, as a rule, are kept more in houses than is the case with cattle meant for 1302. slaughter; such houses are often ill-ventilated, ill-lighted, ill-drained, and ill-cleaned. It is not surprising, therefore, if tuberculosis prevails to a very large extent among that class of stock. This view is confirmed by the experience of numerous veterinary surgeons and meat inspectors. To take three instances :—In the five years 1892-96 there were slaughtered at the Tranmere abbatoirs, in Birkenhead, 3,098 British and Irish cattle. Of these, Marsden, 71 carcases were condemned for tuberculosis, no less than 64 of them being cows. 2122. Between 15th February 1895 and 17th March 1897, 48 animals were condemned on Appendl.\G. account of tuberculosis in the Carlisle public slaughter-house ; of these. 41 were cows pp- S05-9. and heifers, 4 were bullocks, and 3 were bulls. In Glasgow, between 1st October 1895 and 1st October 1897, 1,286 carcases were condemned for tho presence of tuberculosis, viz.:—■ Bulls ...... 13 Bullocks - 4 Calves - - - - - 2 Cows . 1,260 Pigs 7 It is true that the above figures are not so conclusive as they might have proved had a record been kept in each case of the total number of each of the different classes of animals slaughtered, as is usually done in continental abattoirs, the data being tabulated in the annual reports; this, however, is not the practice in Great Britain, though it is clear that any attempt to deal with disease would be greatly facilitated by the knowledge acquired from such returns. We have been obliged to rely on the general statement by medical officers of health and inspectors that tuberculosis is detected far more frequently in the carcases of cows than in those of any other animal slaughtered for sale.