680 OLEOMAKGAEINE. 



and has been done during the past ten years by the Department of 

 Agriculture, through its most excellently sonducted Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, to reduce that danger to a minimum. While the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry, assisted by State sanitary boards, are endeavoring to 

 stamp out and protect the public health from several diseases of minor 

 importance, there is only one disease among the cattle of the United 

 States to-day that is of sufficient importance to menace the public 

 health, and that is the great archenemy of the human race, tuberculosis. 

 And, again, we desire to commend the Bureau of Animal Industry for 

 the scientific knowledge and successful experiments that enabled it to 

 bring forth tuberculin, with which they are so nobly fighting that fell 

 destroyer. The Department of Agriculture, appreciating the necessity 

 for vigorous measures for its suppression, said in its " Year Book," 

 published January 1, 1899 : 



The health of animals and of men is very largely dependent upon the use of sani- 

 tary precautions and the enforcement of sanitary regulations. As tuberculosis in 

 animals is reduced, so will the disease in man be proportionately decreased. There 

 is every evidence to prove conclusively that man may be infected with tuberculosis 

 by drinking the milk from tuberculous animals. 



I call upon this committee to ascertain from the Department of 

 Agriculture if it is not a fact that tuberculosis exists to a very large 

 extent among the dairy herds of this country, and is of very rare 

 occurrence among the beef herds, and practically unknown among the 

 vast herds of the great West. The State board of live stock com- 

 missioners for the State of Illinois in its thirteenth annual report, 

 issued October 31, 1891), said: 



The experience gained through tuberculin tests made in dairy herds by the board 

 since the efficiency and accuracy of tuberculin as a diagnostic agent has become 

 established points very clearly to the fact that throughout the dairy districts of the 

 State tuberculosis prevails among the dairy cattle to a considerable extent. While 

 in many herds only a few cases have been disclosed, in a large number of herds a 

 considerable percentage has been found affected. 



And in another place this board in the same report says: 



The persistency of tuberculosis in remaining in a herd when once introduced, the 

 certain ultimate destruction through the disease of each affected animal, and its 

 certainty to spread to other animals through contagion, * * * and the danger 

 that exists of the disease being communicated to human beings through the milk or 

 the meat of affected animals, makes the question of effectually dealing with this 

 disease, an effort to eradicate it from among the breeding and dairy herds of the 

 State, one of the first importance to every taxpayer and citizen. 



This same board reports that in two years 1897 and 1898 out of 

 929 dairy cattle tested, over 12 per cent were found, upon post-mortem 

 examination, to be diseased. 



About six years ago the Department of Agriculture, through the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, instituted the system of governmental 

 inspection of live stock, and at alt the principal live stock and packing 

 centers have maintained an efficient and intelligent corps of inspectors. 

 They have gradually improved the service, as experience demonstrated 

 the requirements, until to-day it is one of the most valuable branches 

 of the Department. Graduates of veterinary colleges are placed at the 

 head of the various stations, and the inspectors, with a few exceptions, 

 are under the civil service, and must pass examination for proficiency. 

 Each animal, before being permitted to enter the premises of a slaugh- 

 tering establishment, must pass an antemortem examination, and if 

 found to have tuberculosis, actinomycosis (or lumpy jaw), hog cholera, 

 far advanced in pregnancy, or if it is diseased in any manner so as to 

 render it unfit for food, it is condemned. 



(*98) 



