434 MILK 



to carriers whose lack of personal cleanliness was responsible. 

 Skin diseases may be communicated to milk in a similar manner. 



Germ carriers are particularly dangerous, since they are well, 

 and there is no reason for suspecting them of carrying infection. 

 The same applies to those who are in the incubation period of a dis- 

 ease. In typhoid fever, for example, the bacilli are frequently 

 discharged before the patient takes to bed. Furthermore, am- 

 bulant cases are by no means scarce and constitute a serious 

 menace 



It is almost needless to state that the clothes of those carrying 

 infection may be the source of milk contamination. 



There are cases on record showing that nurses may communi- 

 cate disease germs to milk. When a farmer has to care for a sick 

 person and also attend to the milking, his soiled hands may com- 

 municate the virus to the milk. In the milk collecting station a 

 carrier or a person in the incubation period of a disease may cause 

 disaster, and even in the home, nurses may communicate infection 

 to the milk. 



The discharges of patients suffering from a communicable dis- 

 ease should be properly disinfected if the milk-supply is to be 

 guarded. There is the frequently cited example of the Spring- 

 field, Mass., typhoid fever epidemic which was caused by human 

 feces spread on the field and then carried on the boots of the men 

 to an open well in which the milk was cooled in leaky cans. 



Employees may also be responsible for infecting utensils and 

 bottles. Even pasteurization may not be an entirely reliable 

 safeguard against this menace, unless effective precautions are 

 taken. The most modern pasteurization machines provide effi- 

 cient protection against this mode of infection, inasmuch as it is 

 not necessary for an employee to handle the bottles, or for the 

 milk to be exposed to human infection. The milk is constantly 

 under cover and the bottles are automatically inverted to receive 

 the milk from the cooler. 



2. Cans and Bottles. The cans and bottles may be the sources 

 of infection when contaminated water is used for washing and when 

 the utensils are not thoroughly steamed before use. Sometimes 

 bottles are contaminated with disease germs in the home. In 

 many communities it is now compulsory to retain the bottles as 

 long as there is a communicable disease in the house, and after 

 recovery of the patient they are sterilized with special care. 



3. Flies may easily communicate infectious material to milk, 

 since they carry it either on their feet and wings or drop it from 

 the intestinal canal. It is almost impossible to exclude flies en- 

 tirely from cow stables, and even in the best dairies the pest is 

 quite plentiful during the warm season. It is easily conceivable 



