INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF CATTLE. 399 



owners' organization. The council of this association "resolved to 

 submit the general consideration of the question to a committee, with a 

 view to some more definite understanding as to the possible extent 

 to which tuberculosis exists in dairy cattle." The secretary was 

 instructed to write to a number of dairy farmers, being members of 

 the association, asking their cooperation and the use of their herds 

 for the application of the tests. Of the herds offered, 9 were selected, 

 containing 461 cows and 12 bulls, and 188 of these animals reacted, 

 being 40.8 per cent. There were among these cattle 335 Shorthorns, 

 of which 119, or 35 per cent, reacted; 67 crossbreds, of which 28, or 



42 per cent, reacted; 47 Ayrshires, of which 37, or 80 per cent, reacted. 

 Another experiment of much interest is that of the Cheshire 



County council. The technical instruction committee set aside £250 

 to be used by a joint committee from the agricultural and horticultural 

 schools and Worleson Dairy Institute for applying the tuberculin test 

 to their herds. The tests were made February 15, 1899. The results 

 were: Worleson herd of 54 animals, 16 diseased, or 29.6 per cent; 

 agricultural school herd of 17 animals, 4 diseased, or 23.5 per cent. 

 The Worleson herd consisted of Shorthorn cows. In each herd the 

 purebred Shorthorn bull was tuberculous. The results of the tuber- 

 culin test were confirmed by the slaughter of the animals and exami- 

 nation of- the carcasses. 



Sir T. D. G. Carmichael, member of Parliament for Midlothian, gave 

 evidence before the royal commission that his Polled Angus herd was 

 tested in the spring of 1895. "The results of the test were fearfully 

 unexpected and alarming. " Of 30 tested 13 showed decided reaction — 



43 per cent. Again, he speaks of having 41 animals tested the same 

 spring and 16 reacted — 39.5 per cent. 



Of 80 Shorthorn cattle, intended for export, which were tested, 34 

 reacted, or 42 per cent. 



Of a herd of 25 British Shorthorns recently tested in quarantine, 40 

 per cent were found tuberculous. 



The addition of these animals above referred to gives 20,930 head 

 examined and 5,441, or 26 per cent, pronounced tuberculous. And 

 these herds were not selected because they were supposed to be tuber- 

 culous, but represent the general cattle stock of the country. These 

 animals included at least 470 head of Shorthorns, of which 170, or 34 

 per cent, were tuberculous. 



To these facts may be added the evidence of Professor Bang that 

 tuberculosis was brought to Denmark in the first half of the nineteenth 

 century by cattle from Switzerland, Schleswig, and England, and that 

 the same thing is now going on in Sweden and Norway, particularly 

 through English cattle. Also the evidence of M. Sivori, chief of sec- 

 tion at the ministry of agriculture, Argentina, who has investigated 

 tuberculosis in that country, and who says that "thirty or forty years 

 ago tuberculosis was unknown in Argentine cattle, and it is still 



