MEASURES AGAINST BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 71 



such are the only ones disseminating large numbers of tubercle 

 bacilli. The idea is controverted by a mass of evidence too 

 weighty to be thus ignored. The Commission betrays a cer- 

 tain amount of hesitancy in regard to measures against bovine 

 tuberculosis, for elsewhere in the report the following recom- 

 mendation is made : 



"Pasteurization. — Notwithstanding after all safeguards that may be 

 imposed by education and otherwise, there will be cases in which unsafe 

 milk will be produced or offered for sale, and all such milk must be 

 judged on its merits. The Commission, therefore, recommends that the 

 Board of Health .should, according to circumstances, require efficient 

 sterilization or pasteurization of all milk which it finds unsafe for con- 

 sumption as raw milk, on account of a .suspicion of the presence of tuber- 

 culosis or other disease in the cows or unsanitary conditions of the dairy 

 or a persistent high bacterial content. But in every instance milk so 

 heated should be rapidly cooled to at least 40°F., and be put after steril- 

 ization or pasteurization, into sterilized containers under aseptic precau- 

 tions. The pasteurization of milk should be done only a few hours 

 before delivery to the consumer, and the container should be marked 

 with the time and date of pa.steurization and the degree and duration of 

 temperature employed for the purpose." 



Tuberculin test. The tuberculin test is the only available 

 means for the detection of tuberculosis in cattle. Tuberculin 

 is a sterile liquid product containing a concentrated extract 

 of tubercle bacilli. The subcutaneous injection of a properly 

 standardized dose of tuberculin will induce a rise of tempera- 

 ture in a tubercular animal in which the disease is active, but 

 will have no effect upon a non-tubercular auimal. The testis 

 indispensable in the control of the disease by revealing the ani- 

 mals in every stage of the disease beyond the incubation period. 

 The test does not reveal the extent of the disease and hence is 

 of no value in discriminating between tubercular animals dis- 

 seminating infection and those not. The information obtained 

 furnishes the means of separating the healthy from the diseased. 

 In view of the fact that tuberculosis so frequently develops in 

 the animal rapidly, any tubercular animal in a herd is poten- 

 tially if not actually dangerous. It is a most difficult matter 

 to convince the average man upon this point. The number of 

 animals reacting is oftentimes surprisingly large when the 

 general appearance of the herd is considered. Among those 



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