92 Missouri Agricultwal Report. 



culin test for them to willingly part with cows which are in the 

 earliest stages of the disease and show no external symptoms. 

 Mr. H. B. Gurler: 



Mr. President — Perhaps my experience with the tuberculin 

 test for ten years might be of interest to some of you. At the time 

 I started in the certified milk business I had my herd of 130 animals 

 tested with tuberculin by the State board of live stock commis- 

 sioners. We found 3 per cent to react, and at the post-mortem the 

 disease was visible in all. 



I knew of a case in McHenry county, 111., where a cow re- 

 acted, and at the post-mortem no trace of the disease was found, 

 but a guinea pig that was inoculated with this cow's milk died with 

 tuberculosis. I find that I cannot detect the disease of tuberculosis 

 in its early stages by outward appearances. I remember buying 

 three cows from a dairy where I had every opportunity to examine 

 them, and when we applied the tuberculin test two of the cows re- 

 acted and were slaughtered, and found to be much affected. I well 

 remember a newly appointed official of the State board of live stock 

 commissioners passing judgment on some of my cows in advance 

 of the tuberculin test, being very confident that he could tell a tuber- 

 culous cow. But not one of the cows he selected reacted to the 

 test. After ten years with the tuberculin test I have come to have 

 great confidence in it, believing it to be as near infallible as any- 

 thing we have to deal with. I cannot prove that it detects all the 

 tuberculous animals; but in all cases the animals that have re- 

 acted to it have proven to be tuberculous. 



Dr. Luckey: The greatest problem for the dairymen to 

 consider is the disposition of diseased cows. In all states 

 it has been a very difficult matter to arrange for the dis- 

 position of cows reacting to the tuberculin test without 

 working a hardship on someone. Many of the cows which 

 react to the test are too good to slaughter, yet dangerous 

 to keep in a dairy herd. Their milk is unfit for human food, 

 yet many of them, after reacting to the test will put on flesh and 

 lead the average dairyman to believe they are healthy. This fact 

 should be thoroughly established in the minds of dairymen before 

 they go about arranging any general campaign against the spread 

 of tuberculosis. It is hardly possible to suggest a satisfactory plan 

 for disposing of re-acting cows. In some states they are shipped 

 to slaughtering plants having Federal inspection, and if the lesions 

 are found not to have developed beyond certain limits prescribed 

 by Federal meat inspection, their carcasses are passed for food. 



