354 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The necessity for legislation for the suppression of tuberculosis 

 in farm animals has been apparent for several years to a large number 

 of interested persons. One of the most frequent allegations was 

 that the skimmed milk from the creamery was the cause of increased 

 tuberculosis in hogs. For a number of years packers whose hogs 

 are killed under the eye of a competent Government inspector have 

 found their losses by reason of tuberculosis hogs increasing in pro- 

 portion. They uniformly assert at the present time that their regular 

 loss by reason of tubercular hogs, for which they have paid full price, 

 runs, from one to two per cent; that from dairy localities the per- 

 centage is higher than elsewhere; that skimmed milk and buttermilk 

 fed hogs show the highest percentages of tuberculosis. Of course 

 the farmer receives nothing less for his hogs to cover this loss to 

 the packer, but even so small a percentage as two per cent is a very 

 great item figured on the aggregate value of Iowa hogs, and the 

 fact that the disease increases among hogs is alarming. Dairymen 

 should be interested in movements for suppression of animal diseases. 

 Their product depends largely upon its reputation for wholesomeness, 

 and we can not afford to omit any act which tends to keep up the 

 general reputation of our product. For this reason passage of the 

 law requiring pasteurizing of skimmed milk was secured from the 

 Legislature. 



Most Iowa hogs are marketed before they are a year old. Tuber- 

 culosis in hogs does not show its effects so far as the general ap- 

 pearance of the live animal is concerned. It can only be detected 

 by the tuberculin test, or by inspection after slaughter. Because the 

 discovery of this disease in the live animal is almost impossible, 

 farmers are inclined to doubt the prevalence of the disease, but a 

 visit to one of the Iowa packing houses will show too large a num- 

 ber of slaughtered animals hung up in the room for tuberculous 

 hogs. Farmers of this State now lose more than a million dollars 

 annually by reason of this disease in swine. It has been proven ex- 

 perimentally over and over again that hogs fed on milk from tuber- 

 culous cows readily contract the disease. It follows, then, that the 

 distribution of skimmed milk at a creamery results in the spreading 

 of the infection to every farm which patronizes the creamery, and 

 other means of checking tuberculosis in hogs must be found when 

 the hogs are fed upon the infected milk from the neighborhood 

 creamery. 



The Dairy Commsisioner's report of a year ago showed that 

 more than half the milk creameries of the State were voluntarily 

 pasteurizing their skimmed milk before returning to the patron, yet 

 the passage of the present law and attempt at enforcement raised 

 very great opposition. Various objections were raised to the prac- 

 tice. The creameries pasteurizing skimmed milk complained that 

 it made the milk stringy and ropy; that pasteurized skimmed milk 

 sours quicker than unpasteurized; that it makes the calves sick; that 

 the heating destroys the feeding value, and lastly, that it is absurd 

 to care for the health of hogs when no effort is made to prevent the 



