Experimental Apparatus for Testing the Effect of Short-Time Milk Pasteurization. 



PItoto btj Jolm H. Vondcll 



NEW PASTEURIZATION STUDIES 



By WARREN LITSKY, R. B. READ, JR., 

 D. J. HANKINSON, and R. R. BROWN* 



THE TRIUMPH of pasteuriza- 

 tion is the dominant theme in 

 the statistical picture of milk-borne 

 diseases in Massachusetts. During 

 46 milk-borne outbreaks, between 

 1911 and 1915, 4,255 cases of diph- 

 theria, scarlet fever, septic sore 

 throat, and tyj^hoid fever were tliag- 

 nosed. 



How swiftly the scene changes 

 when we look at the picture be- 

 tween 1946 and 1948, when no cases 

 of the above diseases originating in 

 milk Avere reported. 



Dr. Litsky and Mr. Read are members of the 

 Bacteriology Department; Prof. Hankinson is 

 head of the Dairy Department; and Prof. 

 Brown is head of the Electrical Engineering 

 Department. 



Many Factors Responsible 



Healthy cows, inspection of dairy 

 farms and milk plants, and pasteur- 

 ization have been the more impor- 

 tant causes for this marked decrease 

 in disease. For example, from 1905 

 to 1909, nonpidmonary tubercidosis 

 caused 57.7 deaths, on the average, 

 in 100,000 population. The ma- 

 jority of the cases were caused by 

 organisms known as bovine tuber- 

 cule bacilli found in ra'iv milk. It 

 was only after 1910, when pasteur- 

 ization began to be introduced on 

 a large scale in the State that there 

 was a precipitous decline that 

 amoimted to nearly a 75 percent 

 dro|) in deaths by 1923. 



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