TUBERCULOSIS. 3/1 



cal measures ; hence tuberculin is no longer used as a means 

 of condemning to slaughter all reacting animals. 



But although no one to-day advocates this extreme pro- 

 cedure, the test, when properly used, may be of the greatest 

 value to the farmer who is interested in protecting his herd, or 

 in eliminating the disease after it has made its appearance. In 

 the first place it may enable him to be sure that he is purchas- 

 ing healthy animals, if he will purchase only those who fail to 

 respond to the test. In this connection, however, he must 

 bear in mind one fact. If an animal with the disease is tested 

 with tuberculin and responds by a rise in temperature, she is, 

 for a time, protected against a second test. If she is a second 

 time inoculated with tuberculin within a few days, she will not 

 respond. Dishonest dealers have made use of this fact to 

 enable them to sell cattle, first inoculating them privately, and 

 then shortly submitting them to a public test by a veterinarian. 

 It is of course necessary to be on guard against this, as against 

 other dishonest tricks of dealers. 



Utilization of the Tuberculin Test. The use of tuberculin is 

 also of assistance in enabling the farmer to eradicate, or at 

 least reduce the amount of, the disease in his herd after it is 

 once attacked. To do this requires considerable labor and 

 great care in the treatment of the herd. If the farmer has 

 only a very small number of cows, or if only one or two ani- 

 mals react, it is by far the simplest method to remove and 

 destroy them as soon as it can be advantageously done, fol- 

 lowing their removal by disinfection of their stalls. This will 

 be less trouble and of less expense than the other method which 

 is chiefly applicable to large herds, where many animals react 

 to the test. 



If the herd is a large one and the reacting animals are 

 numerous, the following treatment is found to be of great use, 

 and is, indeed, the only practical treatment yet devised, except 

 that of total slaughter. The first step is to detect all tuber- 



