TUBERCULIN TESTING AND TESTERS.* 
By Henry L. Sommer, V.M.D., Philadelphia, Pa. 
In the January number of the American Veterinary Re¬ 
view, as well as in the American Journal of Veterinary Medi¬ 
cine, appeared an article on “ Bovine Tuberculosis, Its Problem 
and Control,” written by no less an authority than Professor 
Veranus A. Moore, of Cornell University. 
Referring to the above-named article, the writer wishes to 
openly differ with the professor’s views as regards the statement 
that “ legislation cannot help in the control and eradication of 
the dread disease.” 
Recently the writer had occasion to be in the State of Wis¬ 
consin. This State is known as a great dairy center, and many 
cattle are daily being shipped out of that State, perhaps into every 
State of the Union, as well as out into foreign countries. Pre¬ 
vious to their export these cattle are tuberculin-tested, and the 
reactors are condemned and slaughtered. 
The testing is done by licensed veterinarians, as well as by 
“ cow-testers,” who are six-month graduates from the Agricul¬ 
tural College of Wisconsin. It is needless to say that, according 
to statistics, the above State stands very high in the errors of de¬ 
tecting tuberculosis. The reason is partly because any of the 
above-named graduates can become licensed by the Sanitary 
Board of the above-named State to do tuberculin testing. In 
consequence whereof many diseased cattle are being passed as 
healthy, due to the inability of these “ graduates ” to make a 
physical examination of the animals to be tested. 
In actual practice many an honest veterinarian is being con¬ 
fronted by the everlasting problem of “ Bread and Butter,” to 
* Presented to the Keystone Veterinary Medical Society, Philadelphia, February 12, 
1912. 
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