BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS AND ITS RELATION TO 



INFANT MORTALITY 



Dr. Lucia E. Heaton 



Farmers' Institute Lecturer 



The bacillus or germ of tuberculosis, like that of some other 

 forms of disease, is subject to differences of growth and develop- 

 ment depending on its host. 



There are at least four kinds of tubercle bacilli known; each 

 differing from the other in ways known to the scientist, but all 

 with common characteristics and with like methods of develop- 

 ment. All forms of the bacillus are destructive to the life of the 

 creature harboring it and it is in all its forms capable of trans- 

 mission from the sick to the well by the diffusion of the germ in 

 various ways. These four forms of tuberculosis are the human, 

 the bovine (infecting cattle and other animals), the avian or type 

 found in birds, and another form which infects cold blooded 

 animals. 



It is probable that all these forms of the bacillus had a common 

 origin and have been differentiated by long periods of growth in 

 their different hosts. 



Experimental evidence furnishes ample proof that bovine 

 tuberculosis is easily transmitted to man while the human type 

 of the disease may, with more difficulty, be transmitted to cattle 

 and other animals. 



Scientists are now able to determine whether the germ, caus- 

 ing a given case of tuberculosis, is of the human or bovine type, 

 and a considerable number of statistics has already been col- 

 lected. These statistics show that most of the cases in the human 

 family which are caused by the bovine germ are in children who 

 are bottle fed or who have lived largely on milk after the period 

 of nursing is past. These cases are frequently of the bones and 

 joints, causing the deformities commonly seen in children. They 

 are frequently, also, of the intestinal and glandular types, while 

 cases of disseminated or miliary tuberculosis are not uncommon. 



^Dr. Eraser, in the Journal of Experimental Medicine of 



1 Tlierapeutie Gazette, December, 1012. 



[1839] 



