PREVENTION, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT 2 - 7 



senting 0.25 c.c. of old tuberculin. If tuberculin is kept any length 

 of time it is wiser to procure the concentrated toxin and dilute -it 

 ■with Y-2. per cent, of carbolic acid prior to injection. Tuberculin 

 should be kept in a cool dark place and rejected if it becomes cloudy. 

 Most herds should be regularly tested once yearly with tuberculin 

 and twice if there has been much infection. 



The ophthalmo-tuberculin and skin tuberculin tests are still too 

 recent in veterinary practice to permit one to discuss their precise 

 value or limitations. 



Treatment. — Treatment is rarely advisable in animals because 

 often unsuccessful and because there is danger of communication to 

 other animals .and to man by meat or milk from the same, or — in 

 the case of dogs and cats- — by their sputum. An outdoor life, ,night 

 and day, with good feeding, may lead to recovery and is the most 

 successful form oi treatment known — as in the case of man. 



Prevention. — This is secured by the following plans : 



1. Keep cattle out-of-doors in pastures or open sheds all the 

 time, or at least in well-ventilated, uncrowded stables. 



2. Isolation of the sick by the double tuberculin test and de- 

 struction of those which react. This method is suitable in cases 

 where there are not many patients in a herd. Where a large propor- 

 tion of a herd react the money loss and the fact that in the re-test 

 more will react and at the next test more again — these facts militate 

 against this method of prophylaxis. It is always wise for persons 

 in search of stock not to buy from herds in which there is .much 

 tuberculosis, even if the animals desired do not react to tuberculin, 

 for the reason just stated ; that is, because in such herds there 

 are always individuals which are in a latent or incubative stage oi 

 the disease, so that while not reacting they are tuberculous and 

 will react ilater. For the same reason cattle that have reacted and 

 cease to react should not be placed with sound cattle. 



3. Bang's Method of Segregation. Kill cows which .show 

 marked physical signs of tuberculosis, especially disease of the 



* See Bull. No. 172 Dep't Agriculture for state of Pennsylvania. 



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