Report / Committee on Cattle Diseases.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Cattle Diseases.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report / Committee on Cattle Diseases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    93/166 (page 91)
    (iii) the grant to large urban authorities of the right to require pasteurisation of milk other than that produced from herds free from tuberculosis (paragraph 126). The further development of the veterinary inspection of dairy cattle. _ (24) Though clinical inspection reduces the amount of tuberculous milk passing into consumption, it can never render the milk supply safe as— (i) some cows showing no clinical symptoms yield tuberculous milk; (ii) cows reach the stage of giving tuberculous milk between the visits of the inspector; (iii) milk is often contaminated with tubercle bacilli present in infected dung or dust. Experience shows that clinical inspection cannot be relied on to reduce infection to really small proportions, though it has not yet been sufficiently developed to show how effective it might be in this direction (paragraphs 127-132). (25) A veduction in the infection of milk with bovine tuberculosis is not accompanied by a proportionate reduction in the infection in man, and the results of clinical inspection may prove disappointing from this point of view. Routine clinical inspection will not greatly reduce the incidence of bovine tuberculosis by removing infected cows from herds, but it will improve the day-to-day management of herds, awaken farmers to the necessity of eradication and benefit country as well as town populations (paragraphs 133-136). Methods of eradication. (26) The total eradication of bovine tuberculosis from all herds is the only complete solution of the problem of tuberculous milk. Self- supporting herds may be cleared by the isolation or elimination of infected cattle; but most herds are not self-supporting, and some special provision must be adopted for them. The specialisation of herds for breeding and milk production respectively is economically advantageous and firmly established and cannot be reduced. A campaign based from the beginning on progressive formation of clean areas would require compulsion at the outset and would greatly inter- fere with the free flow of cattle on which our whole cattle industry is based, and cannot now be undertaken (paragraphs 137-142). | (27) It is therefore essential to prevent the infection in transit of tuberculosis-free cattle. The practical difficulties involved will be considerable, but not insuperable (paragraph 143). (28) Farmers may reduce tuberculosis in their herds by the slaughter, the segregation, or the sale of reacting animals. Any