INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF CATTLE. 433 



All tuberculous animals should be slaughtered in abattoirs having 

 Federal inspection, and the money obtained from carcasses which are 

 inspected and passed for food, and from the hide and offal of those 

 carcasses condemned as unfit for food, should be applied as part pay- 

 ment on the indemnity for their respective owners. The payment of 

 indemnity for tuberculous animals is a good business policy and would 

 do more toward making the tuberculin test popular with cattle owners 

 than any other possible action. And as a corollary of the latter more 

 testing would be performed, and more tuberculous cattle would be 

 discovered at the start, but the gradual suppression of the disease 

 would soon be manifest, as has been noted in Pennsylvania and Den- 

 mark. Furthermore, as Stiles has mentioned, if tuberculosis can be 

 eradicated fi-om' dairy' herds with but slight loss to the owner, the 

 increase in the price of milk would naturally be inhibited, and the 

 children of poor families would consequently be in less danger of 

 having this very important article of their diet decreased. 



From the investigations and observations that have been mentioned, 

 it may be safely concluded — 



1. That the tuberculin test is a wonderfully accurate method of 

 determining whether an animal is affected with tuberculosis. 



2. That by the use of tuberculin the animals diseased with tuber- 

 culosis may be detected and removed from the herd, thereby eradi- 

 cating the disease. 



h. That tuberculin has no injurious effect upon healthy cattle. 



!. That the comparatively small number of cattle which have 

 aborted, suffered in health, or fallen off in condition after the tuber- 

 culin test were either diseased before the test was made or were 

 affected by some cause other than the tuberculin. 



SUMMARY OF DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING THE TUBERCULIN TEST. 



1. Stable cattle under usual conditions and among usual sun^ound- 

 ings, feed and water in the customary manner. 



2. Make a physical examination of each animal, and give to each 

 one some designation by which the animal will be known throughout 

 the test. 



3. Take each animal's temperature at least three times at two or 

 three hour intervals on the day of injection; for instance, at 2, 5, 

 and 8 p. m. 



4. At 8 or 10 p. m. inject a dose of tuberculin under the skin in the 

 region of the shoulder, using a sterile hypodermic syringe after dis- 

 infecting the skin at the seat of injection with a 5 per cent solution of 

 carbolic acid or a similar antiseptic solution. 



5. Tuberculin is not always concentrated to the same degree and 

 therefore the dose, which should always appear on the label, varies 



16923°— 12 28 



