5oo Suppression of Tuberculosis. (oct., 



1905-6, and the proportion of reacting cattle on these farms 

 was found to be 32 per cent., compared with 51 per cent, at 

 the time of the first inoculation ; but apparently the necessary 

 precautions as to isolation and testing of new animals were not 

 fully carried out at all the places. 



The official report states that since the withdrawal of the 

 prohibition of the sale of affected animals the trade in diseased 

 cattle has increased, and most of the veterinary inspectors 

 consider that the disease has become more prevalent in con- 

 sequence. 



Germany. — No organised methods have, up to the present, 

 "been taken against tuberculosis in Germany, except as regards 

 imported cattle, which are submitted to the tuberculin test. 

 In the introduction to a Bill for the amendment of the law as 

 to suppression of animal diseases, which was laid before the 

 Reichstag in November, 1907, it is observed that this disease 

 is most widely spread. Out of 3,329,000 cattle slaughtered 

 in 1904, 595,500, or 17 -9 per cent., were found to be affected 

 with tuberculosis ; moreover, the statistics for the separate 

 States, so far as they are available, suggest that there has been 

 a very material increase in the disease in recent years, thus 

 the proportion of tuberculous animals among slaughtered 

 cattle in Prussia has risen from 6 -2 in 1890 to 20 -3 per cent, 

 in 1904, in Bavaria from 5 -o per cent, in 1895 to 9 -20 per cent, 

 in 1904, and in Saxony from 27 -5 per cent, in 1895 to 34 -5 

 per cent, in 1904. Some portion of the increase, however, 

 is probably due to an improvement in the methods of inspection. 

 Any attempt to deal with tuberculosis generally would, it is 

 considered, be too great a task, and the Bill therefore proposes 

 to deal only with tuberculosis of the lungs in an advanced 

 stage, and tuberculosis of the intestines, uterus and udder. 

 Cattle thus affected can be slaughtered by order of the autho- 

 rities, and the police have power to make regulations to prevent 

 the spread of disease, &c. Milk from such cattle is not to be 

 disposed of until it has been properly sterilised. Compensation 

 is to be paid at the rate of four-fifths of the normal value^ 



This proposed law has evidently been framed with some 

 reference to the method of Dr. Ostertag, which has been adopted 

 by the East Prussian Herdbook Society for Dutch Cattle. This 

 system differs from that of Dr. Bang in that it relies on clinical 



