PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 685 



2.— THE DISEASES OF ANIMALS AND MEAT INSPEC- 

 TION IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 



By J. B. GLELAND, 31. D., Ch.M., Government Bacteriologist and Pathologist, 

 Perth, Western Australia. 



The importance from a public health point of view attached to 

 the proper supervision of meat supplies is increasing year by year. 

 In this connection the Chicago scandals of 1906 have marked an epoch, 

 and the public are now no longer apathetic but justly insistent upon 

 their right to be served with meat foods about which there can be no 

 question. 



Western Australia, for its thickly populated districts, possesses 

 a highly efficient staff for the inspection of meat. This consists of 

 five inspectors, all specially trained in their work, three of whom deal 

 with the abattoirs at Fremantle, one with the smaller ones in the 

 neighborhood of Perth, and one at Kalgoorlie. 



To aid them in understanding exactly the nature and modes of 

 spread of the diseases with which they deal, they have further spent 

 a considerable amount of time in doing elementary bacteriology and 

 pathology in the laboratory of the Central Board of Health. To the 

 laboratory are also forwarded all interesting or ambiguous diseased 

 organs for further examination, so that the exact nature of every 

 pathological state can be ascertained. Each inspector is also furnished 

 with a number of printed cards, one of which is filled in for each animal 

 showing any sign of disease, particulars enumerated being the disease, 

 its position, the age and sex of the animals, the abattoir where slaugh- 

 tered, and the locality whence the animal came. It is hoped that 

 in this way very valuable data will be obtained, indicating not only 

 the nature of the diseases met with, but also their relative proportions 

 and the localities in which thev occur. 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES COMMUNICABLE TO MAN. 



(1) Tuberculosis. 



A reference to the tabulated result of three months' classification 

 of the pathological lesions in slaughtered animals will show you that 

 tuberculosis is a common disease amongst the north-west cattle of 

 Western Australia, and amongst the pigs of the more southern portion. 



Of the total cattle killed at the Fremantle abattoirs 8-8 per cent, 

 had tuberculosis. Of 383 of these 357 were from the north-west. At 

 this season of the year, however, nearly all the cattle are from that 

 region, only a small minority being from the more southern portions 

 of Western Australia, or from eastern States. The above percentage, 

 then, will represent fairly accurately the extent of this disease in the 

 north-west, though it is probably slightly under-estimated. The 

 percentage in the eastern States is probably distinctly higher than this, 

 the pastures being older. 



