DR. J. M. BEATTIE'S PAPER 160 



have for long exercised a control over our milk supplies, 

 and this has had the very desirable effect of reducing 

 in a few years the amount of tuberculous milk sold 

 by over 50 per cent. But this reduction should have 

 been much greater, and I have no hesitation in assert- 

 ing that in a comparatively few years tuberculosis 

 could be eradicated from our milking herds if our 

 control were thorough, general and compulsory, and 

 not lax and sporadic as it now often is. 



You will ask me then on what lines I advocate 

 this thorough control. I may sum it up thus the 

 compulsory inspection of cows, cowsheds, dairies, &c., 

 by competent inspectors under the control of skilled 

 administrative officers and assisted by scientific 

 observers who are skilled bacteriologists. 



The cows should be inspected thoroughly and 

 their udders examined, when empty, at least three 

 times per year, and any animal which gives any 

 indication of disease at once isolated. It should be 

 compulsory on the dairyman who introduces a new 

 cow into his herd to notify this fact to the administra- 

 tive officer, so that the animal may be inspected at 

 once. This universal and systematic examination of 

 the cows would prevent a custom which is too pre- 

 valent to-day the driving of tuberculous cattle from 

 the controlled farms into neighbouring districts where 

 the control is not effective. The bacteriological 

 examination of the milk should be undertaken 

 frequently, the mixed sample from any given dairy 

 being the usual supply, but when the special inspec- 

 tion of the cows is being made then samples should 

 be taken from any suspicious animals. If the mixed 

 sample at any time shows the presence of B. tuber- 

 culosis, then that dairy should be visited, any 

 suspicious animals isolated, samples taken from these 

 as well as control samples from the rest of the herd, 

 and these samples carefully examined bacteriologically. 

 In this way the infected animals could be separated 

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