No. 7. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 117 



merous complaints as to forage poispninjj; have come from tlie coun- 

 ties of Adams, Cimiberland, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Wyoming and 

 York. A laboratory study of this disease is being made and some 

 interesting and important, facts are being developed. It is hoped 

 that they will be available for publication in the near future. 



TUBEKCULOSIS. Tuberculosis of cattle has been found in prac- 

 tically all parts of Pennsylvania. It is the most widespread of the 

 infectious diseases of farm animals. It causes great losses to cattle 

 owners; this loss occurs in several ways. The direct loss of infected 

 animals is large, but greater losses occur from the lowered produc- 

 tiveness of infected animals, that is, from the loss of condition, from 

 the loss of food consumed for which no adequate return is made, 

 from the loss of breeding value. 



During the year, it has been necessary to condemn 1,536 tubercu- 

 lous cattle from 858 herds. A very much larger number of tubercu- 

 lous cattle than this is annually disposed of to cattle buyers, who 

 resell tln'm for slaughter. The tuberculous cows that are appraised 

 and paid for by the State are the property of conscientious men who 

 would not knowingly sell an infected animal where it might 

 spread disease, or they are cows that are suffering with 

 tuberculosis in such advanced forms that they are not sal- 

 able, or they are cattle that react to the- tuberculin test 

 when this test is applied to the entire herd. No harm 

 can come from the sale of tuberculous cattle for slaughter provided 

 they are taken to a properly equipped slauflfhter house that is under 

 competent veterinary meat inspection, as is required and provided 

 by the federal government. Under such conditions, the meat can 

 be adjudged in accordance with the rules provided for the guidance 

 of meat inspectors in disposing of carcasses of tuberculous cattle. 

 These rules provide for the condemnation and destruction of the 

 flesh of animals infected with tuberculosis of such extent or distri- 

 bution as to render it possible that the meat may be unwholesome. 

 On the other hand, if the disease is of such limited extent or distri- 

 bution as to make it clear that the meat cannot be infected, it is 

 not required under the rules, to be condemned and it is permitted 

 to be sold. In such a slaupfhter house, precautions are taken to keep 

 the establishment cl^an and. v;hen necessary, to disinfect it, so as 

 to avoid the contamination of meat from any infectious material that 

 may have been brought into the slaucrhter house by animals pre- 

 viously killed. Before enterin*];- a slaughter house, animals should 

 be subjected to a phvsical examination, so that those thnt" are man- 

 ifestly disea.sed. or that show evidence of a condition that may pos- 

 sibly indicate the existence of lesions that mio-ht require the con- 

 demnation of the flesh, may b^ killed outside of the slaughter house 

 for fertilizer or, if in the slau<Thter house, separately, and under 

 special supervision, so that no horm may result. 



Som_e people have taken an extreme position in regard to the use 

 of the flesh of animals that mav have reacted to the tuberculin test, 

 or that show limif'^d. lonal lesions of tuborcnlosis. They sav. all 

 'animals with tuberr-ulosis. even in the least decree should be killed 

 outside of the slau"rhter house and their fl^sh rp'udpred into fertilizf^r. 

 It is necessarv to point out to those who hold this view that there 

 W a dlstjuctlon between local and general disease and that in a great 



