156 MAINE STATE COLLEGE. 



BULLETIN No. 13. 



THE SUPPRESSIOX OF BOYIXE TUBERCULOSIS AXD 

 GLAXDERS. 



The object in writing this bulletin is to call attention to the 

 modern, and, in most cases the only, methods of determining 

 whether animals are suffering from these diseases. But little refer- 

 ence is made to the general symptoms of the diseases, for although 

 volumes might and have been written describing the symp'omsthat 

 are sometimes noticed, it is a well known fact that in many cases, 

 particularly in tuberculosis, there are no symptoms that would either 

 attract the attention of the owner or that can be detected by the 

 most skillful veterinarian, and in this obscurity lies the chief danger. 

 A long description of inconstant symptoms will tend to obscure the 

 points presented here and would accomplish nothing. Any inquiries 

 regarding diseased animals, accompanied by a description of the 

 symptoms, the Experiment Station will be ready to answer at any 

 time. 



Tuberculosis of cattle is a widely distributed disease differing in 

 no very essential particular from tuberculosis of other animals. 

 It is transmitted from sick to well cattle through the matter coughed 

 out and through the milk, and very rarely directly from parent to 

 offspring by inheritance. On account of the conditions under which 

 they are kept, dairy cattle are most subject to the disease and in 

 general it is most prevalent among cattle where consumption and 

 other forms of human tuberculosis most prevail. On the other 

 hand, it seems to be true that human tuberculosis is most prevalent 

 where the meat and milk of tuberculous cattle are used for human 

 food. The statement is made that among some reservation Indians 

 where diseased meat is freely eaten, the death rate from tuber- 

 culosis is one-half of all the deaths. 



There are two principal reasons why every effort should be made 

 to suppress bovine tuberculosis. 1st: It should be done to pro- 

 tect healthy cattle that are continually being exposed ; and 2d : 

 It should be done to save the many thousands of human lives that 

 are yearly sacrificed to consumption contracted and fostered by 

 milk, meat, etc., from tuberculous cattle. It is certainly true that 

 either of these reasons offers grounds sufficient to warrant the 

 adoption of even what may seem to some to be extreme measures 



