447 



Bovine Tuberculosis and the Milk Supply of the 

 Territory of Hawaii 



By Victor A. Norgaard, V.S. (Copenhagen), 

 Territorial Veterinarian. 



(Delivered at the annual meeting of the Hawaiian Medical Assn.) 

 Gentleme.n : — The efforts of the Board of Agriculture and 

 Forestry at eradicating bovine tuberculosis have been continued 

 during the past year along the same lines as reported to this asso- 

 ciation at the last two annual meetings. 



While complete eradication cannot yet be reported, the num- 

 ber of dairies which may be said to be free from tuberculosis 

 infection is steadily increasing and will, when the year's testing 

 has been finished, be found to be close to 90 per cent. Of the 89 

 dairies tested up to this date, including all dairies in Honolulu 

 and vicinity, 7Z, or 82 per cent, did not have a single reacting 

 animal. Up to this date, November 25, a total of 4845 dairy ani- 

 mals have been tested, of which number 4700 were found healthy 

 and 145 were condemned as tuberculous. Nearly all of these 

 animals were butchered, and it is gratifying to state that only a 

 very small number were found on post mortem examinations to 

 have the disease in a sufficiently advanced state to warrant the 

 condemnation of the entire carcass. The most common lesions 

 were more or less extensive tubercular nodules in the retropharyn- 

 geal bronchial and mediastinal glands, and less frequently in the 

 mesenteric, supramamary and prescapular glands. Tuberculous 

 nodules in the lungs are becoming more rare with every year, and 

 cases of open tuberculosis are hardly ever met with. It may, 

 therefore, be taken for granted, that many of the dairies which 

 still contained reactors this year, were freed of the infection with 

 the removal of the infected animals and the thorough disinfec- 

 tion of the premises. 



There still remain about 3000 head to be tested, the majority 

 of which belong to the Railroad ranches and the rest to dairies 

 beyond Ewa, in all of which few reactors will be found. 



It will therefore be seen that the danger of transmitting bovine 

 tuberculosis to children, with milk, even when uncooked or un- 

 pasteurized, has been diminished to a considerable extent when 

 compared to the conditions obtaining here six years ago, when 

 more than thirty per cent of the dairy cattle of Honolulu were 

 tuberculous and many of them affected with advanced forms of 

 the disease, such as tuberculosis of the milk glands (or udder). 

 A further safeguard against the disease is the excellent pas- 

 teurization plant installed by the Honolulu Dairymen's Associa- 

 tion, where 83 per cent of all the milk consumed in Honolulu is 

 handled. The Goucher electric milk purifier, mentioned in my 

 previous papers before this association, has recently been replaced 



