264 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



owing to more milk being fed to young swine. Doctor Koto, our state 

 veterinarian, states ttiat lie lias been furnished, the past year, by the 

 packers and the National Bureau of Animal Industry, a list of shippers 

 in the state, who have placed on the market a large number of tubercu- 

 lous swine, and that in a majority of instances, where an investigation 

 was made, he could trace the disease, among swine, to tuberculous cattle. 

 The Thirty-first General Assembly passed a law requiring every owner 

 or operator of a creamery to pasteurize all skimmed milk at a tempera- 

 ture of 185 degrees Fahreinheit. Incidentally, the skimmed milk so 

 treated would be in better condition to feed; but the primary object 

 of the law is to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in swine and calves 

 fed such milk. The full compliance of this wise law would be of inesti- 

 mable value to the farmers of the state in restricting tuberculosis in 

 swine and among cattle. The tuberculin test is conceded by all author- 

 ities to be a satisfactory, speedy, safe and cheap method of ascertaining 

 the presence of tuberculosis in cattle. We now have a state law requir- 

 ing registered cattle shipped into the state for breeding or dairy pur- 

 poss to be so tested. Is there any logical reason why milch cows and 

 dairy herds should not be subjected to this test and all animals found 

 by the test to be diseased be branded and kept isolated and their sale 

 prohibited, except for slaughter purposes under state or federal inspec- 

 tion; and the sale or use of milk from such animals prohibited? Per- 

 haps it might be deemed advisable to pay the owner of animals slaughtered 

 the difference between the beef value and the carcas value, in case 

 the animal is condemned under federal inspection in the slaughter test. 

 All authorities now claim that bovine tuberculosis may be transmitted 

 to human beings, largely through the consumption of milk from diseased 

 cows, but the tubercle bacilli are said not to thrive to any great extent 

 in butter; but I aprehend that we would all prefer our butter made from 

 pure, wholesome milk or from pasteurized cream. 



Cities and towns no doubt now have the power, as a regulation of 

 public health, to require all animals within their limits to be subjected 

 to the tuberculin test and all diseased animals quarantined, and all milk 

 offered for sale inspected, but this power is seldom invoked. A general 

 statue based on the high plane of the protection of the public health 

 and the promotion of the general welfare of the people requiring all 

 dairy herds of the state to be subjected to the tuberculin test and the 

 animals found diseased to be branded and quarantined, with the right to 

 the owner of selling them for slaughter purposes only, under state or 

 federal inspection, and, if deemed advisable, payment made by the state 

 of the difference between the beef value and the carcas value, in case 

 the animal is condemned in the slaughter test, would seem to be the only 

 real solution of bovine tuberculosis. 



The National Department of Agriculture is lending its powerful 

 influence to restrict and stamp out the disease; surely, the state of 

 Iowa should do its full part. With bovine tuberculosis overcome, the dis- 

 ease in swine would soon be eradicated, while the ravishes of the great 

 "white plague" that is a pall over many of our homes, would be greatly 

 curtailed. Iowa has always been a progressive state. The excellent work 

 of the dairy department of the agricultural college and the able and effici- 



