XVIII PREVENTION OF TUBERCULOSIS 323 



small farms their provision may not be possible. In such 

 cases the diseased are restricted to one end of the field, and 

 the healthy to the other. The only safe way, however, is the 

 complete separation of diseased from healthy, both in the 

 house and at grass. The premises must be systematically 

 and thoroughly disinfected. 



The next step is the rearing up of herds free from 

 tuberculosis. Bang has shown that the calves of tuber- 

 culous mothers (except in very rare cases) are born free 

 from tuberculosis, and will remain so if protected from 

 infection. The calves are removed at birth from their 

 infected mothers to a place free from infection, and care is 

 taken that no infection subsequently gains access to them. 

 The calves are fed on milk heated to 80° C. (sufficient to kill 

 tubercle bacilli). In practice it is desirable to avoid rearing 

 the calves of cows with very advanced tuberculosis, as it is in 

 these that the few cases of intra-uterine infection are found. 

 To guard against mistakes and accidents the calves, like the 

 other stock, are tested with tuberculin. Subsequently the 

 whole stock is submitted to testing with tuberculin every 

 half-year, any reactors being at once removed. In Denmark 

 the veterinary services and tuberculin are supplied gratuitously, 

 the chief expense being the cost of the separate accommodation 

 required. 



Bang ^ lays great stress upon the killing of cows suffering 

 from tuberculosis of the udder. He says that Danish farmers 

 readily co-operate, and that more than 2500 samples of milk 

 from cows suspected to be suffering from udder tuberculosis are 

 sent in yearly to his laboratory to be examined. Tubercle bacilli 

 are found in about 3 per cent of the cases. About 700 such 

 cows are killed every year, and the compensation paid for them 

 generally amounts to 50,000 kr. yearly (about £2600). The 

 Danish law requires that cows suffering from tuberculosis 

 of the udder shall be killed under proper supervision. " The 

 owner shall be entitled to a compensation for ■ the animal 

 amounting to one-third of the market value of the carcase, 

 calculated at the current price." Further compensation is 

 also paid, equal to half its value, for such parts of the animals 

 as are declared unfit for food. See Appendix, p. 431. 



1 Sixth International Congress on Tuberculosis, 1908, vol. iv. part ii. p. 850. 



