166 ANNUAL. RKI'ORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



THE EESULTS OBTAINED IN THE ERADICATION OF TUBEK- 

 CULOSIS FROM A HERD BY THE USE OF TUBERCULOSIS 

 \'AC(JINE AND THE BANG SYSTEM 



By S. H. GILLILAND, V. M. D., M. D., State Veterinarian and Secretary of the State Live- 

 stock Sanitary Board of Pennsylvania. 



(From the I.nlniriiliuy of the State Livestock Saiiitaiy Hoara of renusylvania.) 



In 1902 Dr. Leonard Pearson and the writer published "Some ex- 

 permiments upon the immunization of cattle against Tuberculosis" 

 and their conclusions were as follows: — 



"1. That after repeated intravenous injections of cultures of 

 tubercle bacilli from human sputum the resistance of young cattle 

 to virulent tubercle bacilli of bovine origin may be increased to such 

 an extent that they are not injured by inoculation with quantities of 

 such cultures that are capable of causing death or extensive infection 

 of cattle not similarly protected. 



"2. That by intravenous injection much larger quantities of human 

 sputum tubercle bacilli than are necessary to confer a high degree 

 of resistance or immunity upon the vaccinated animal may be admin- 

 istered without danger to that animal." 



Since that time many others have reported upon experiments with 

 the object of increasing the resistance of cattle toward the tubercle 

 bacilli. Among these have been Von Behring, Hutyra, Klimer, 

 Schultz, Arloing, Courmont, Moussu, Neufeld and Meissner, Vallee, 

 Weber and Fitze, Eber, Plohler and vSchroeder, Trudeau and Baldwin, 

 and many others in this county and abroad have done much work 

 upon the subject. 



Owing to the great volume of literature on this problem, I shall 

 not attempt to incorporate an abstract of the same in this paper. 



In 1904 Dr. Leonard Pearson was called u})on to give advice rela- 

 tive to the eradicati<m of tuberculosis from a herd consisting of ap- 

 proximately 200 head of cattle, including dry cows, bulls and heifei'S 

 over one year of age. At the conference it was decided that the herd 

 should be carefully tested with tuberculin, all reactors to be removed 

 from the main barn and kept rigidly isolated from non-reactors. The 

 herd consisted of thoroughbred Guernseys, Holsteins and grades, and 

 it was further agreed upon that if any of the most valuable animals 

 should react they were to be isolated, placed upon the Bang system, 

 and to be treated with tuberculosis vaccine with the object of saving 

 their offspring. This work was placed in my charge, and has been 

 under my direct supervision since the start. 



A thorough tuberculin test was made during May 1904 of the milk- 

 ing herd consisting of 160 animals, of which 42 animals, or 26.2 



