GERMS IN RELATION TO MILK 33 



the r.ealthy cows. Nodules (or the miliary form) of actinomycosis 

 may occur in the udder and the ray fungi from the disease may 

 escape into the milk and produce the disease in man, when it is 

 used as food by him. Botryomycosis may also attack the udder and 

 render the milk unfit for food. The milk, butter, buttermilk and 

 cheese from cows with foot-and-mouth disease has been the means 

 of communicating this disease to man, giving rise in him to sore 

 mouth, tender swellings under the jaw, an eruption of blisters or 

 "cold sores" on the face, fever and disturbance of the digestion. 

 Boiling and pasteurization (180 F.) destroys the germs of foot- 

 and-mouth disease. Cow pox, milk fever, anthrax and pleuro- 

 pneumonia ( ?) in cows have been conveyed by the germs of these 

 diseases, in their milk, to human beings. 



Some special diseases of cows have been studied in relation 

 to infection of milk. Thus in that fatal form of dysentery of new- 

 born calves (due to colon bacilli and proteus forms), and in in- 

 fected navels of the new-born (septic umbilical phlebitis due to strep- 

 tococci, staphylococci, colon bacilli, etc.), which is also accompanied 

 with diarrhea, the milk isapt to be contaminated with the germs of 

 these diseases in the atmosphere. Cows with an often fatal form of 

 bloody diarrhea, accompanied by fever (hemorrhagic enteritis due 

 to some of the colon group), may secrete milk containing the germs; 

 of the disorder and these may produce typhoid-like conditions iti 

 man consuming the milk. In various digestive disturbances of cows 

 the milk is apt to be altered in taste (salty or bitter) and appearance 

 (thin, yellowish, or it undergoes "sweet curdling"). 



Cows having a foul discharge from retained afterbirth and in- 

 flammation of the womb (septic metritis) should be removed from 

 the barn, as the odor and germs in the vaginal discharge (colon 

 bacilli and cocci of various kinds) will contaminate the milk of 

 neighboring healthy cows. The milk from such diseased cows is 

 not fit for use. 



Cows having open sores, especially on the udder and teats, are 



