292 

 DIMSTOX OF ANIMAL IXIK'STRY 



Honolulu. October 6. 1913. 



Hon. W. M. Giffard, President and Executive Officer, Board of 

 Agriculture and l-'orestry. 



Dear Sir : — I beg to .submit herewith a service report on the 

 work of this division for the month of September, 1913. From 

 this it will be seen that a number of the larger dairy herds in the 

 city and county have been rctested for tuberculosis, after an in- 

 terval of only three months from the previous test, as compared 

 to one year as hitherto practised. 



The results are gratifying so far as the decrease in numbers 

 of reacting animals is concerned, and careful post mortem ex- 

 aminations of said reactors demonstrate fully that the disease is 

 practically wiped out, though not entirely so. This condition 

 corresponds exactly with what is met with in other countries 

 where efforts are being made to eradicate bovine tuberculosis. 

 and also demonstrates that the work must be pushed to a finish 

 now in as many herds or dairies as possible — or the work of 

 years will have been wasted. If, for some reason or other, the 

 disease cannot be eliminated from certain herds, such herds must 

 be proclaimed or "posted" as infested until they have been freed 

 from infected animals. To allow milk from known reactors — 

 that is, cows proved to be infected with tuberculosis — to be sold 

 for human consumption should no longer be tolerated, and when 

 the disease has been reduced to such slight mininmm as that which 

 persists here at the present time, it would seem unwise not to 

 carry this great piece of work to a successful end. 



It is therefore recommended that every infested herd in the 

 city and county be retested in short order, until the last reacting 

 animal has been disposed of and the disease wiped out. There 

 are now 74.28 per cent, of clean herds and only 25.72 per cent, 

 remain to he dealt with further. When these have been attended 

 to there only remains the ])rol)lem of preventing a rcinfecti<')n of 

 the island through diseased cows from the other islands or from 

 abroad. To this end it may become necessary to (juarantine 

 against the other counties, in so far as dairy cattle and products 

 are concerned, until such time as these counties see fit to eradi- 

 cate bovine tuberculosis. To prevent the entrance of fresh in- 

 fection frfjm abroad it will be necessary to amend the present 

 regulatif)ns ]X'rtaining to the importation of live stock, to rc(|uire 

 tliat dairv cattle intended for im])ortation here nuist come from 

 clean herds; that is. herds certified to by the local health author- 

 ities to have been free from tuberculosis for at least one year, .md 

 to guard against infection in transit. 



The iii1crn;iti(in;il nicilic;il conL/ri-^s luld in l.imdon tlii^ fall 



