THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 65 



significance of animal tuberculosis to the live-stock industry of 

 America and the factors which must be accounted with in formu- 

 lating successful measures for its eradication. The commission re- 

 stricted its activities to the ascertainment of reasonable and economi- 

 cally practicable methods or systems to be recommended to both 

 officials and live-stock owners for eradicating this great scourge of 

 domestic animals. It averts to the fact that tuberculoses is increas- 

 ing rather than declining among cattle and other animals, and, that 

 as this disease is one of the strictly preventable infections, there is 

 good ground for the belief that, through the formulation and en- 

 forcement of proper regulations, tuberculosis -among animals may 

 eventually be entirely suppressed. 



The commission recognizing, after careful study, that the tuber- 

 culin test is the fundamental factor in any policy having for its 

 object the control of bovine tuberculosis, recommends that, as a gen- 

 eral policy, all contact between tuberculous and healthy cattle a,nd 

 between healthy cattle and stables, cars, etc., which may contain live 

 tubercle bacilli, be prevented; that there should be no sale or ex- 

 change of animals affected with tuberculosis except for immediate 

 slaughter (and for breeding purposes under official supervision) ; 

 that all live-stock shippers should take every precaution to see that 

 all cars furnished are thoroughly cleansed and disinfected before use; 

 that tuberculin properly used is an accurate and reliable diagnostic 

 agent for the detection of active tuberculosis (though tuberculin may 

 not produce a reaction when the disease is in a period of incubation, 

 when its progress has been arrested, or when it is extensively gener- 

 alized, which last condition is relatively rare and may usually be 

 detected by physical examination) ; that all exposed animals should 

 be retested at intervals of 6 months to 1 year; that the tuberculin 

 test should not be applied to any animal having a temperature higher 

 than normal; that any animal having given one distinct reaction to 

 tuberculin should thereafter be regarded as tuberculous; that the 

 subcutaneous injection of tuberculin is the only method of applying 

 same for the detection of tuberculosis which can be recommended at 

 the present time; that the injection of tuberculin has no injurious 

 effect on healthy cattle; and that a positive reaction to tuberculin 

 in any properly conducted test, official or otherwise, in any animal in 

 any herd shall be considered evidence sufficient upon which to declare 

 the herd to be infected. 



The commission proceeds to recommend the passage of legislation 

 providing for the compulsory notification, by owners and veteri- 

 narians, of the existence of tuberculosis in a herd, whether such in- 

 formation result from clinical examination or from the tuberculin 

 test, and favors the adoption of some system of marking, for the 

 purposes of identification, of all cattle 3 years old or over shipped for 

 slaughter. 



In order to insure the eradication of tuberculosis the commission 

 further specifies the necessity of separating healthy and diseased 

 animals, maintaining that if a herd be found to be extensively in- 

 fected, even the apparently healthy animals should be regarded with 

 suspicion until they have been separated from the reacting animals 

 for a period of at least 3 months, after the expiration of which those 

 animals not reacting to the tuberculin test may be considered healthy 

 and classified accordingly. 



82444 S. Doc. 863, 61-3 5 



