90 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



severe loss from an epidemic. At the first rumors of trouble of this kind 

 customers turn to other dealers and there consequently results a 

 contraction in business that is more or less permanent, depending some- 

 what on the quality of the milk that has been delivered by the dealer 

 and on his standing with his trade. Most retailers have contracts with 

 farmers that hold for some months for the delivery of a certain amount 

 of milk daily. So, when shrinkage in the trade takes place, the milk 

 keeps coming regardless of the fact that there is no market for it. There- 

 fore, it has to be manufactured into butter or cheese usually with attend- 

 ant loss. If the milk is infected on the farm the supply is usually shut 

 off at once which is likely to mean severe contraction of the retailer's 

 supply and complete loss to the farmer, although some contractors deem 

 it good policy to pay something for the milk. 



Control of Milk-borne Diseases. In the United States responsi- 

 bility for the control of contagious disease is placed on the local or on the 

 State health department. Something can be accomplished by inspections 

 of the premises whereon the milk is produced or sold. Polluted water 

 supplies can be eliminated; insanitary privies cleaned up; screening 

 against flies can be encouraged and wholesome conditions of living can 

 be fostered. Where milk is sold in stores the same sort of measures 

 should be applied and in addition the sale of milk from rooms that are 

 in part occupied by the family should be forbidden. 



Departmental records should be kept in such a way as to show the 

 relation of milk supplies to communicable disease; the thing vital to 

 the success of doing this, is to get all cases promptly reported. When 

 this is done and the cases marked up on the dairy routes which the 

 victims patronize it is often possible to detect an epidemic at its inception 

 and to institute measures to check it. As has been already said some 

 help is given by a system of notification warning dairymen of the appear- 

 ance of contagion in the household. 



However, all such measures are only helpful in reducing the opportu- 

 nities of infection. Once, it was hoped that by thorough inspection of 

 dairies, strict quarantine and similar measures to reduce danger. of infec- 

 tion of milk supplies to an all but negligible minimum but better knowl- 

 edge of the modes of transmission of contagion, of carriers, missed 

 cases, bottle infections, etc., have shown that it is a delusion to cherish 

 such a hope. In its place has been substituted faith in pasteurization 

 by the " holder" process. It has been proven that the germs of disease 

 in milk are killed by an exposure of 140F. for % hr. so that if the process 

 is properly protected by thorough inspection, the safety of the milk can 

 be guaranteed. 



Sources 



MOORE, "Bovine Tuberculosis and Its Control," 1913. 

 MELVIN, "Tuberculosis," Am. Vet. Rev., vol. 34, p. 250, 1908. 



