353 



good condition bringing from $50 to $60 on the block if passed 

 for beef (and hardly any fail to pass now that practically all the 

 bad cases have been eliminated), then it is difficult to under- 

 stand how any dairyman can see it to his profit to risk the in- 

 fection of one or more cows from each reactor he retains on his 

 premises, unless he continues to utilize the milk from his reactors 

 in boiled and pasteurized condition, which again can rarely be 

 done to advantage when the risk is considered. The Dairymen's 

 Association, we are assured, will not accept the milk from re- 

 acting cows for treatment in their purifying plant as this would 

 necessarily mean admixture with the milk from the clean herds, 

 besides which the method would be illegal under the existing 

 milk ordinance. Nor would such milk, if the facts were known, 

 find a market so long as milk from clean herds is obtainable. 

 There consequently remains only the one object of fattening the 

 reactor before sending it to the butcher, and with the possibility 

 of the caracss being condemned this also would seem of doubtful 

 value, as a consumptive animal is not given to putting on flesh 

 rapidly. 



In view of these facts it is therefore to be hoped that the dairy- 

 men who still have reactors in their possession will take ad- 

 vantage of the present great demand for beef and consequent high 

 prices, prices which are fifty to one hundred per cent higher than 

 they were a year ago, and at the same time make an earnest ef- 

 fort at ridding their stables and premises of the tuberculous in- 

 fection ; or, in other words, have every dairy animal over four 

 months old tested, every reactor butchered, all stables, mangers 

 and stanchions scraped and whitewashed, and all yards, sew^ers, 

 drains and cesspools scraped and cleaned until, so far as possible, 

 all of the old infected manure has been removed. 



With bovine tuberculosis at a hitherto unknown minimum the 

 present must be considered a very favorable time for a concerted 

 efifort at complete eradication, so far as this district is concerned, 

 and will undoubtedly cost less and prove of quicker advantage 

 to the dairymen than at any previous time and possibly at any 

 subsequent time and will, with the present great efforts at com- 

 bating the great white plague, no doubt be appreciated by the 

 local health authorities as well as by the public in general. 



An article on the subject of bovine tuberculosis in its relation 

 to public health, and especially with regard to its transmission to 

 children, is now being prepared and will be delivered at the annual 

 meeting of the Aledical Society of Hawaii on Saturday, Novem- 

 ber 21. The object of this paper is to enlist the cooperation of 

 the medical profession in educating the public in the knowledge 

 and appreciation of clean and wholesome milk. 



V^ery respectfully, 



Victor A. Norgaard, 

 Territorial Veterinarian. 



