404 
G. A. JOHNSON. 
DISPOSITION OF TUBERCULOUS CATTLE. 
The disposition of tuberculous cattle, as revealed by the tu¬ 
berculin test, is a very important matter, both from a sanitary 
and financial standpoint. At the present time the two systems 
most in vogue are, first, the Bang or Danish method, by which 
affected animals are kept isolated for breeding and dairy pur¬ 
poses. By this method the calves are taken from their dams and 
reared on the milk of healthy cows, and the milk is pasteurized ; 
that is sterilized, and then placed on the market. While by the 
second method all affected animals are immediately destroyed and 
the owner compensated for them. In other words, the authori¬ 
ties buy the affected animals of the owner and then destroy them. 
It occurs to me that a combination of these two methods af¬ 
fords the best solution of the problem. In case of animals val¬ 
uable for breeding purposes, follow the Bang method, while 
common stock could be isolated until fat enough for market, 
then slaughtered under strict inspection, where those that were 
so slightly diseased as not to affect the meat for food would be 
passed and those where the disease had advanced to a degree to 
render the meat unwholesome would be destroyed. By this 
method the owner would receive what his cattle are actually 
worth, and the authorities would be relieved of a great financial 
burden. Immediate destruction is the only remedy for ad¬ 
vanced cases. 
Is the disease in cattle increasing in this State (Iowa) ? 
Most assuredly it is. A few years ago it was rarely seen on 
post-mortem, now it is frequently seen, while the tuberculin 
test has demonstrated that as high as 60 per cent, of some herds 
are tuberculous. Some authorities claim that under the sani¬ 
tary precautions now in vogue relative to tuberculosis in the 
large cities, the disease has decreased 36 per cent, in man dur¬ 
ing the last ten years, but no estimate is made as to what per 
cent, of this decrease is due to such meat and milk inspection 
as is now in force in most of the larger cities. 
The seat of the morbid lesions as an indication of the mode 
of infection. 
