The results of the use of tuberculin in the Castlecraig herd belonging to Sir T. D. Gibson Carmichael / by James Wilson.

Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The results of the use of tuberculin in the Castlecraig herd belonging to Sir T. D. Gibson Carmichael / by James Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the tuberculous from the non-tuberculous animals; but the very serious question was “ what next ? ” The immediate slaughter of all the tuberculous animals was first suggested, but against this there were two very powerful reasons, namely, that the sixteen animals had cost, on the average, about sixty pounds a-piece, and that most of them, at the time of testing, were suckling their calves. A second suggestion was that the animals not suckling calves should be immediately slaughtered and that all the others should be slaughtered when their calves were weaned in the autumn. Against this second suggestion, however, there was still the very powerful argument of the price, and slaughter was carried out only in the case of the cow already mentioned as having produced a dead calf, in the case of another cow that also prematurely produced a dead calf, and in the case of two heifers : the remaining twelve receiving a kind of temporary respite, in the hope that another way than slaughter might be found out of the difficulty. And a way was indicated by the statement of bac- teriologists to the effect that milk as it comes from the udder is germ-free except when the milk gland is in a diseased con- dition. A few weeks before the time of testing, one of the tuberculous cows had calved, and she was then seen to have a diseased udder. Her calf was at once transferred to another cow, and the cow herself was slaughtered shortly after testing; but the udders of the remaining eleven tuberculous cows seemed to be sound, and it was decided to go on breeding from them in the usual way, so long as they would breed. The following regulations were, however, gradually developed:—(i) That the tuberculous animals be isolated ; (2) that they suckle their calves ; (3) that during the winter, excepting in stormy weather, they and their calves along with them be let out to