CHAPTER XXXII. 

 MILK AND DISEASE. 



ALTHOUGH milk is one of the cheapest and best of foods, yet it is 

 responsible for more sickness and death than perhaps all other foods 

 combined. The reasons for this have been summarized by Rosenau 

 as follows : 



"1. Bacteria grow well in milk; therefore, a very slight infection 

 may produce widespread and serious results. (2) Of all foodstuffs, 

 milk is the most difficult to obtain, handle, transport, and deliver 

 in a clean, fresh, and satisfactory condition. (3) It is the- most 

 readily decomposable of all our foods. (4) Finally, milk is the only 

 standard article of diet obtained from animal sources consumed in 

 its raw state." 



Diseases conveyed through milk are of two classes: (1) Definite 

 diseases of animal origin tuberculosis, foot-and-mouth disease, 

 malta fever, and anthrax, and indefinite ailments as diarrheal infec- 

 tions and probably contagious abortion. (2) Diseases of human 

 origin typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, 

 tuberculosis, septic sore throat, and possibly others. 



Sources of Infection. Infection of bovine origin is very common, 

 especially in the case of tuberculosis wherein the animal is suffering 

 with open cases of this disease and the organism gets into the sur- 

 roundings from the respiratory or alimentary tract. Extreme care 

 in the milking process may decrease the infection from this source, 

 but not so in the case of tuberculosis of the udder, which probably 

 accounts for the main cases where the tubercle bacilli find their way 

 into milk. 



As a rule milk becomes infected from human sources. This may 

 be either direct or indirect human infection. 



Direct human infection may come from a person either suffering 

 with the disease or carrying the infective organism. The more 

 common are the following : 



1. The most common method is where the milkers or other 

 handlers of milk are suffering with a communicable disease in a mild 

 unrecognized condition. 



2. A second common source of infection is where the milker or 

 vender of milk has been brought in contact with sufferers of com- 

 municable diseases and still attends to his regular work in the hand- 

 ling of milk. 



