Police Measures. gQ3 



mental infection with tuberculosis. ValUe expresses the hope that such serum may 

 be used for therapeutic purposes, in fact some hundreds of persons have already 

 been treated with this material but reports on results have not as yet been available. 



Veterinary Sanitary Police Measures. The extraordinary 

 prevalence of tuberculosis, especially among the improved 

 breeds of cattle, and the consequent enormous losses have been 

 the motive of government interference for the purpose of the 

 controlling, and, as may be possible, completely exterminating 

 the disease. On the very account of the great prevalence of 

 the disease however, measures of protection and extermination 

 that have proved successful for other animal plagues can 

 hardly be applied to tuberculosis. With the exception of 

 states and countries where the disease has as yet made little 

 headway, general measures for compulsory slaughter can not 

 be considered because such a procedure, aside from the 

 enormous financial sacrifice, would otherwise most seriously 

 affect the best interests of the live stock industry of the country 

 and of other interests generally. Under existing conditions, 

 therefore, and for a long time to come, government activity 

 must be confined to gradually enforced measures of repression 

 and the extension of every possible aid to such" owners of 

 live stock whose earnest endeavors are aimed at the extermina- 

 tion of the evil. 



In order to reduce the danger of exposure and infection 

 oflScial regulations should require, above everything else, that 

 animals with open tuberculosis, and particularly cows with 

 tuberculosis of the udder, be excluded from trade by rigid 

 quarantine and destroyed as soon as possible, subject to 

 reasonable compensation to the owner from government ap- 

 propriations or from funds provided by a system of obligatory 

 live stock insurance. To aid in the enforcement of this measure 

 it should be made the duty of meat inspectors to report every 

 case of tuberculosis to the proper authorities whereupon it 

 would devolve upon the latter to make an official investigation 

 of the herds from which the diseased animals originated and 

 cause any and all evidently diseased remaining animals to 

 be disposed of by slaughter subject to proper inspection. 



The permanent professional supervision of all herds, but 

 particularly and primarily of dairy herds, is justified by the 

 importance of an early recognition of clinically affected or 

 suspected animals so that the milk from these animals, which 

 is dangerous to the health of human beings, shall not be put 

 on the market unsterilized. Milk from infected herds should 

 not be permitted to be sold unless previously heated to at 

 least 80° C, and the product of animals with affection of the 

 udder should under no circumstances be permitted to be sold, 

 given away or otherwise utilized. In addition, official regula- 

 tions should provide that all skim milk and other by-products 

 from creameries and skimming stations must be heated to 

 at least 80° C. before they may be returned to the producer 



