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SLAUGHTER-HOUSE AND DAIRY INSPECTION. 



I will introduce this division of my report with a paper prepared at my 

 request by Dr. D. E. Salmon, chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, 

 whose experience and familiarity with the subject especially qualify 

 him to speak of it with authority. 



THE NECESSITY OF INSPECTING ANIMALS SLAUGHTERED FOR FOOD. 



The inhabitants of the United States are the greatest consumers of meat of any 

 people in the world. They have developed this characteristic because nowhere else 

 has the supply of meat been at the same time so abundant, so cheap, and of such 

 superior quality. 



We find, however, that the conditions under which our food-producing animals are 

 grown, marketed, and slaughtered have been rapidly changing, and that this change 

 has greatly increased the desirability of government supervision over the trans- 

 portation and slaughter of animals and the preparation of their flesh for human 

 food. 



The necessity for such supervision was first felt in our export trade in pork products. 

 Our trade with Germany and France had grown to large proportions. The Germans, 

 from their habit of eating pork either raw or only partially cooked, were subject to 

 periodical epidemics of trichiniasis, because the hogs of all countries are more or less 

 affected with the parasite which causes this disease in people. To guard against 

 such outbreaks of disease the German Government instituted a microscopic inspection 

 of all hogs slaughtered in the Empire, so that those infested with trichinae might be 

 discovered and condemned. Requiring such an inspection for their own hogs, they 

 consider it admissible to prohibit the importation of pork products from other coun- 

 tries where the same precautions are not enforced. 



In adopting this regulation it is true that they did not give* sufficient weight to 

 the fact that no trichiniasis had ever been produced in Germany by American pork 

 or to the additional fact that the curing process to which all exported meats are sub- 

 jected destroys this parasite when present. Notwithstanding these facts, the regula- 

 tion was enforced and our trade was ruined. The agitation which occurred at this 

 time was such that the Government of France was induced to enforce a similar pro- 

 hibition, although with less justification, because there is no microscopic inspection 

 in that country to exclude the products of their own trichinous hogs from consump- 

 tion. 



Two of the greatest markets of the world being thus shut against our hog products, 

 because of the alleged existence of trichinae, it is probable that this prohibition will 

 not be withdrawn until our Government provides for an inspection from which it can 

 guaranty that the meats packed under its supervision are free from this parasite. 

 And this is the first reason for the development of a system of meat inspection. 



The change in the method of slaughtering by which this business is concentrated in 

 a few centers, and the meat is shipped in cold storage to all parts of the country for 

 sale, has developed the second great reason for national inspection. Under the old 

 plan of killing in the \icinity where the meat was to be consumed the butcher was 

 known by the consumer; he had a reputation to maintain, and he was subject to lo- 

 cal laws and sanitary regulations. At present the identity of the butcher is lost in a 

 distant packing center, where several firms carry on an enormous slaughtering busi- 

 ness ; local butchers who dare to compete are ruined by the power of these great mo- 

 nopolies ; the consumer has no recourse but to buy such meat as i> furnished or to do 

 without this necessary article of food. Local inspection laws are impotent to protect, 

 because the animal must be seen before slaughter and the viscera must be examined 

 when tfce cajcasg is dressed to make an inspection of any ral value, This great change 



