338 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



from tuberculous cows. Such milk is dangerous for human 

 food. It is believed that people, especially children, 

 are often infected in this way. Sixty-nine per cent of the 

 cattle that were condemned by government meat-inspec- 

 tors at slaughter-houses in the United States in 1907, 

 were condemned because of tuberculosis. Of the 105,879 

 hogs that were condemned, 65,618 were for tuberculosis. 

 Of the 436,161 parts of hog carcasses that were con- 

 demned, 364,559 were for tuberculosis. 1 All these losses 

 are borne by the farmer. The packers have to pay 

 enough less for the live animals, so as to make good the 

 loss of the condemned ones. A far greater loss is caused 

 by the low production and slow growth of diseased ani- 

 mals on the farm. 



When tubercle bacteria live in different animals, they 

 become somewhat changed. The bovine and the human 

 forms of tubercle bacteria are slightly different, but they 

 are now believed to be the same species of organism. 

 Cattle inoculated with the human form have been given 

 tuberculosis. Apes, inoculated from cattle, contract 

 the disease as readily as when inoculated with germs 

 from men. 2 The opinion now generally accepted is that 

 little of the pulmonary tuberculosis in man is due to infec- 

 tion from milk, but that about half of the glandular 

 cases are of the bovine type. By glandular cases is meant 

 the cases of tuberculosis of intestines, bones or other 

 organs, aside from lungs. It is evidently not safe to use 

 cows' milk that contains the germs. The danger is much 

 greater for children than for grown persons. Even though 



1 Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry, 1907, p. 20 

 Experiment Station Record, Vol. 18, p. 478 



