THE CONTROL OF TUBERCULOSIS 151 



plan can be obtained by writing the Bureau of Animal Industry, 

 Department of Farms and Markets, Albany, New York. 



234. Should every owner test?— We have stressed the desir- 

 ability of eliminating tuberculosis and have stated in general 

 terms that a clean herd is an essential of profitable dairying. Now 

 that we have discussed the losses due to disease, described the 

 working of the accredited herd plan for cleaning up and indicated 

 the cost involved, let us face the question as to whether every 

 owner should plan to apply the tuberculin test and test his herd at 

 once. This is difficult to answer because conditions differ in 

 different states and areas and because each owner has his own 

 special problems, but we believe we will help our readers most if we 

 answer this question as definitely as we can. The owner of pure 

 bred cattle should by all means plan to test at once. Profit in the 

 pure bred business must rest in part on sales. No reliable public 

 sales will take other than tested animals. In fact, so many pure 

 bred owners are striving for clean herds that there is little market 

 for untested animals even at private sales. Animals cannot be 

 shipped out of the state unless tested. Thus, the purebred owner 

 must test or go out of business. 



235. Testing the grade herd. — Where there is an opportunity 

 for a special market for milk from a clean herd it will be profitable 

 to test whether the animals are purebreds or grades. Where grades 

 are being raised for sale it is profitable to test. There are condi- 

 tions, however, where it may not be profitable to test a grade herd 

 now. Let us take an extreme case. Take a herd in an area which 

 has a high percentage of the disease and where indemnities are 

 low and slow in coming. To test the herd means to lose a large 

 part of it with no nearby place from which to buy tested cattle 

 and little money to buy them. Assuming that the milk is so dis- 

 posed of as to be pasteurized before being consumed, it is not a 

 menace to health, except possibly to the young members of a 

 farm family. The local veterinarian can be called upon to locate 

 an animal producing milk safe for the children. This can also be 

 done for the calves, or pasteurized skim milk can be used. There 

 are many owners of grade herds in these badly infected areas. 



