A memorandum on bovine tuberculosis in man : with special reference to infection by milk.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Health.
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A memorandum on bovine tuberculosis in man : with special reference to infection by milk. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/26 (page 4)
    PREFATORY NOTH BY THE CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER. | On the 6th February, 1930, Colonel Fremantle, M.P. (St. Albans), asked the Minister of Health “‘ if, with a view to effective co-ordination of effort to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis from cattle to man and to promote the consumption of milk, he will issue, for the guidance of the public, a review of the main facts, experience, and conclusions on which action should be based.’’ The Minister acceded to this request and promised, as soon as circumstances allowed, a brief memorandum on the subject, and this has now been prepared in the Medical Department of the Ministry. It is issued to the public as a general outline of the position in this country regarding the incidence of tuberculosis and the proportion due to bovine infection, the incidence of tuberculosis in cattle and the estimated percentage of milk from those animals proving tuberculous, together with a consideration of the available known measures which can successfully be adopted for mitigating or preventing the infection of consumers of such milk with the bovine bacillus. Such a memorandum is not intended, of course, to provide a full statement of all our knowledge of the subject of tuberculosis and milk, which would require a lengthy period of preparation. But it does contain a conspectus of information designed to enable the reader to appreciate the needs of the situation and the difficulties of meeting it, which are by no means free from both practical and scientific involvements. GEORGE NEWMAN. Whitehall, March, 1931.