436 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



clition, in order to bre^d from them, and in that manner avoid the 

 excevssive loss which would follow from their immediate slaughter. 

 This may be done safely if proper precautions are adopted. The 

 healthy animals should be separated from the diseased ones, and the 

 stable in which the diseased animals have been should be frequently 

 disinfected. ^Vhen calves are dropped by the tuberculous cows they 

 should be immediately removed, or at least not allowed to drink the 

 mother's milk more than once or twice, and after that fed upon the 

 milk of healthy cows. The milk from the animals which have re- 

 acted should not be used until after it has been boiled and the tubercle 

 bacilli thus destroyed. The younger animals which are raised from 

 tuberculous dams should be tested when they are about 6 months 

 old, and all of those which react should be immediately slaughtered. 

 It has been found that by following the plan suggested above not 

 more than 1 or 2 per cent of the calves will develop tuberculosis. It 

 is, of course, some trouble to follow this method, but it enables the 

 owner of a purebred herd to retain the strains of blood which he 

 has been breeding, and gradually to eliminate the disease. At the 

 end of six or eight years he should have a herd of cattle free from 

 tuberculosis and be prepared to destroy all of those which have re- 

 acted. 



BOVINE TL^BEaSCULOSIS AND THE PUBLIC HEIALTH. 



The increasing amount of evidence pointing to the identity of 

 human and animal tuberculosis, combined with the extraordinary 

 mortality of human beings from this disease, often amounting to 10 

 to 14 per cent, has raised the question in all civilized countries as 

 to how far animal, and especially bovine, tuberculosis was to blame 

 for this high mortality. The medical and veterinary professions 

 have approached this problem with equal zeal, and much has come to 

 light within recent years which enables ns to come to some conclu- 

 sion. If this disease is transmitted from animals to man, how does 

 the transmission take place? As comparatively few people come in 

 direct contact with tuberculous cattle, it must be either through the 

 meat, the milk, the butter, the cheese, or through all of these products 

 that the virus enters the human body. The question has thus nar- 

 rowed itself down to the food products furnished by cattle. 



It has become a very urgent question, especially in the poorer coun- 

 tries of Europe, whether all flesh from tuberculous animals is unfit 

 for human food. It is argued there that if it can be shown that in 

 the majority of cases of tuberculosis the bones and the muscular 

 system are free from mfection. there is no reason why the meat should 

 not be put on sale under certain restrictions. The question may be 

 resolved into two divisions: (1) How frequently does the disease 

 invade those parts of the body which are used as food? (2) Wlien 

 the disease procevSs is manifestly restricted to the internal organs, do 



