Vol. XVI. No. 398. 



THE AGBICULTUEAL NEWS 



237 



SUPPLY OP PURE MILK. 



Of late J ears it has been fully recognized that certain 

 diseases are disseminated through milk, and, in the case of 

 bovine tuberculosis, this fact was clearly stated in the final 

 report of the Departmental Committee on tuberculosis 

 appointed in Great Britain in 1912. The Committee expressed 

 the opinion that the bacillus of bovine tuberculosis was the 

 cause of tuberculosis in man, and to a greater extent in 

 children, and that the best way to attain security from this 

 danger was entirely to eradicate tuberculosis from the cxttle 

 of the country, and welcomed the proposed legislation dealing 

 with the question of milk supply. About this time, too, the 

 Tuberculosis Conference was held in Trinidad, and, at the 

 conclusion of the discussion on the paper read by the Veter- 

 inary Surgeon of the Imperial Department of Agriculture, a 

 resolutiDu was passed urging that measures should be taken 

 to prevent the extension in the West Indies of bovine tubercu- 

 losis and the possible infection of human subjects. Since 

 the Conference, general measures to this end do not appear 

 to have been taken by the colonies represented, but it is 

 satisfactory to know that the municipal authorities of 

 St. John's, Antigua, are alive to the danger and have 

 recently amended the bylaw in respect of milk to make it 

 more eti'ective to secure a wholesome supfJy for the city. 



In the Leeward Islands Ga.ette of .June 7, 1917, appears 

 the by-law (No. 1 of 1917) passed by the City Commissioners. 

 After defining the terms 'messenger', 'huckster', 'vendor' and 

 'Agent of the Coiiimissioners', the terms 'impure', 'unwhole- 

 some' or 'adulterated' are applied to: (a) milk containing less 

 than 3 per cent, of milk fat: (b) milk containing less than 8-.5 

 of milk solids other than milk fat: (c) milk in any stage of 

 putrefaction or having any abnormal colour, consistency or 

 smell; (d) milk which has been diluted with water or other 

 fluid, or to which any foreign substance whatever has been 

 added; (e) milk drawn from cows within twpnty days before or 

 ten days after parturition: (f) milk drawn from any diseased 

 cow: and (g) milk which has been producijd under insanitary 

 conditions, or which has become contaminated by contact 

 with any unclean substance or by being handled by any sick 

 or nnclean person. 



Every vendor of milk must obtain a licence, and no 

 person can receive a licence unless the milk is produced and 

 handled under sanitary conditions, and unless he furnishes 

 a certificate from the Government Veterinary Surgeon that 

 each cow from which he obtains his supply of milk is free 

 from tuberculosis or other dangerous disease. Licence holders 

 are compelled to notify to the City Commissioners the 

 existence of any disease among his cows, or among any 

 members of his family or milk attendants or messengers; and 

 no person suti'ering from a communicable di.sea^e or who has 

 recently been in contact with persons so sufiVring will be 

 permitted to handle milk or milk utensils for the supply of 

 the city. The milk must be conveyed in locked cans to the 

 vendors and hucksters must keep their milk in locked cans 

 fitted with a draw-oft' tap from which only the milk may be 

 dispensed Among other salutary regulations under this 

 important bylaw are that milk for sale shall be kept in clean 

 and suitable receptacles and screened or protected from 

 dust and tiies, that milk shall not be kept or sold in rooms 

 used wholly or in part for domestic or sleeping purposes, and 

 that any room in whicli milk is kepi tor sale must be clean 

 and not fr(M|uented by persons suffering from any diseases or 

 by domestic animals and must not be in communiciition with 

 a latrine or urinal. 



In connexion with the important subject of a pure milk 

 supply the Government of Canada has recently passed 



regulations relating to bovine tuberculosis. Under these regu- 

 lations the Government will assist any town which signifies 

 to the Veterinary Director General its desire to have the aid 

 of the Department of Agriculture in controlling tuberculosis 

 in the cows supplying milk to the town, provided the town 

 will undertake that: (a) dairies in which milk is produced 

 for sale shall be licensed; (b) no licence shall be issued unless 

 the dairy conforms with the recjuired standard; (c) the 

 standard shall require that the sUble shall have an ample 

 amount of air space and shall be well ventilated, drained and, 

 kept clean and sanitary: (d) two years from the date of the 

 first test of the cattle of a dairy, the sale within the town of 

 unpasteurized milk shall be prohibited, unless the veterinary 

 inspector can certify that the herd contains no reactors and is 

 free from tuberculosis; and (e) an inspector shall be appointed 

 by the town whose duty it will be to see the provisions of the 

 regulations duly carried out. Following an examination, cows 

 afliected with open tuberculosis, which are distributing the 

 germs of the di-sease through the milk, f;eces or sputum, will 

 be slaughtered as soon as possible, while reactors (suspicious 

 animals being classed as reactors) will be disposed of by 

 immediate slaughter or slaughter after they have been pre- 

 pared for the block by drying ofiF and feeding or retaining in 

 the herd and selling no milk until it has been pateurized. 

 Compensation for cows slaughtered will be given at the rate 

 of one-half of the appraised value of the cow, if destroyed as 

 a case of open tuberculosis, and two-thirds of the appraised 

 value, if destroyed as a reactor at the request of the owner. 

 No compensation will be paid to an owner, unless he 

 assists as far as possible in the eradication of the disease 

 by following the instructions of the Inspector as to dis- 

 infection, etc. To facilitate the operation of the regu- 

 lations, the dairies in any town may be divided into 

 two classes, namely, raw milk dairies, and pasteurized 

 liiilk dairies. Following the principle laid down by the 

 International Health Commission in leaving to local author- 

 ities the carrying cjn ot its work after ankylostomyasis has 

 been practically eradicated from a district by the oflttcers of 

 the Commission, whenever, in the opinion of the Veterinary 

 Directory General the work of eliminating tubercu- 

 losis from the herds supplying a municipality has 

 reached a satisfactory point, he may notify the Medical 

 ( )fficer of Health that the Department of Agriculture has 

 terminated its work in that locality and thereafter the 

 municipality will be expected to maintain the standard 

 reached. 



In the West Indies, although the danger to which public 

 health is exposed through the use of milk from tuberculous 

 cows is very great, it is unfortunately only one among many 

 dingers to which persons are exposed through the use of 

 impure, infected and dirty milk, and, a-i it is more than likely 

 that the excessive mortality among children in these islands 

 is due to no other cause than the u.se of impure milk, the 

 subject is one which should engage the serious attention of 

 local authorities. 



The Times of India states that great progress has been 

 made in Hyderabad in manufacturing motor spirit from the 

 mahua or mhowra tree. About 2.5,000 tons of the flowers are 

 gathered every year, of whicli only 10,000 tons are used for 

 liquor, leaving l-J.OOO tons as a drug in the market. Motor 

 cars have been run successfully on a spirit prepared from 

 mahua at half the cost of petrol. The annual local consump- 

 tion is about 100,000 gallons and only 1-5,000 tons of 

 mahua are required to make that quantity. 



