TUBERCULOUS MILK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1749, 14 May 1913, Page 11

TUBERCULOUS MILK.

IS ITS MENACE EXAGGERATED? ,AN AMERICAN VIEW. A great problem in American dairy circles just now is the tuberculosis question. Tiio editor of the "American Agriculturist" puts the United States position as follows:— To test cows with tuberculin or not to test is tlio great question in milk circles to-day. Whether a State shall, .spend millions, give jobs to thousands of vetercnarians, ami Kill all reacting animals is the problem now facing legislatures! cattle breeders, and dairymen. City doetors have greatly alarmed city users ot milk in recent years*. JJy so doing they have injured tho dairy business and deprived hundreds of thousands of people, of wholesome milk. Because of ingnt, children and people who require uulk have been denied its use; and poorly nourished they arc ravished by other diseases. 3u tho article following Mr. Bailey endeavours to.- show that even from tuberculous herds the danger ot transmission of tuberculosis is so slight as to warrant little, if any, consideration. Mr. L. 13. Bailey reviewed the whole position before the Ohio Agricultural Convention, as under;—

IS ITS MENACE EXAGGERATED? ,AN AMERICAN VIEW. A great problem in American dairy circles just now is the tuberculosis question. Tho editor of the "American Agriculturist" puts the United States position as follows:—

To test cows with tuberculin or not to n test is tlio great question in milk circles s to-day. Whether a State shall, .spend J millions, give jobs to thousands of vetcr- j inarians, and Kill all Teact'ing animals is j the problem how facing legislatures, cat- , tlo breeders, and dairymen. City doc- , tors have greatly alarmed city users ot , milk in recent years. By so doing they j have injured tho dairy l.usiness and de- . prived hundreds of thousands of people. ( of wholesome milk. Because of j children and peoplo who require mi k have been denied its use; and poorly s nourished they are ravished by other diseases. In the article following -Mr. Bailey endeavours to.- show that even from tuberculous herds tho danger ot transmission of tuberculosis is so slight as to warrant little, if any, consideration. Mr. L. li. Bailey reviewed the whole position before the Ohio Agricultural Convention, as under:— Br. liobert Jvoch, the great German scientist, made a special study of the uso of tuberculin and the relation of human, to bovine tuberculosis. He concluded that they were different diseases and not transmissible ono to the other. Ho made this statement at tho tuberculosis congress, held in London, July, 1901, and it was challenged by other scientists. _ At the tuberculosis congress, held in 'Washington in 190S, ho reaffirmed his statement, made eight years before, with the admission that tho liability, if at. all possible, for the human to contract tuberculosis from the cow, by consuming either milk or meat, i 9 so slight as to lnerii. jittlo consideration. Since Br. Koch s claim of 11)01 Dr. A. W'eber, a membfr of the Imperial German Board of Health, has. been colleclring reliable facts as fains possible, as to the effect of milk from cows with udder tuberculosis. Ho has had. physicians keep track of people who they know for certain have taken milk or its products, from such cows. From the collected results of fivo years* work in this line, ho reports as follows:—"Three hundred and sixty persons, among whiich lot were children, have, - as positively stated, consumed unboiled milk from cows having udder tuberculosis, or tho products of such milk, such as butter, buttei'r milk, sour milk, and cheese for a longer time. Of all those persons, in only two families Jias an infection with cattlo tuberclo bacilli been shown with certainty, a child in each case." Dr. Weber further says that the udder tuberculosis was very bad, that the children used tho milk for a year and a half, that tho milk was only mixed with that of one .other cow, and that the other members of (ho family have remained well, up to date, though they also drank of the raw milk, ctc. Dr. W'eber concludes as follows;— "Tlio danger which humans run by drinkin" milk or consuming tho products _of mfik from cows, even with, udder tuberculosis, is very, very small, when compared to that offered by humans suffering with open lung tuberculous, to their neighbours." \

Commenting on Dr. Weber s report, Professor B. Bang, of Copenhagen, perhaps tho greatest,, living authority on bovino tuberculosis, says: "It cannot bo denied that if the tuberculous milk were equally dangerous for humans, calves, and pigs, ihen we must have expected many more and much worse cases of tulMiculoiiis among this group. There is evidently a differeuco in the susceptibility. But it is sure also that there are but very few nowadays who will not acknowledge that the greatest danger to humans lies in the infection from tuberculosis humans■and lhat tho cattle, as a source of infection, can. only be deemed to be secondary." Dr. Henry L. K. Shaw, physician of the Albany child's hospital, says m reference to the transwissibility of tuberculosis from cattlo to mankind: "I have watched this matter very closely. I insist upon all infants brought under my. earo being fed on raw milk. I regard as little short of a crime, the fear that has been instilled in so many minds, that there is danger of consumption, in any of its manifestations, being contracted by human beings, by eating beef or drinking pure milk. In all my study of this subject, I have been ablp to accept as fairly established, not more than eight or 10 cases of tuberculosis throughout the civilised world that were traceable to bovino

origin." Thomas J. Edge, while secretary of the Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, made the following statement:—'"ln my practical experience of .over 15 years I liavo not yit found a oase of tubercular consumption, in tlip human race, which I could bv anv means trace to tuberculosis in tho, animal. At the same time, I do not wish to be quoted as saying that it cannot bo so transmitted, but will sayif it is transmissible, the danger is so slight and the opportunity s6 seldom occurs, that it is wirse than foolish to get up a scare on account of it." Secretary Edgo says: "In one case where Dr. Bridge and I condemned 15 cows out of a herd of IS, for six or seven years, one or more cows in the herd had died oacli year with precisely the same symptoms. 'l'he true character of the disease was not suspected until a veterinarian called in ilio state officers. The milk from this dairy had all been sold for ■ consumption as mill;, in.a small town | of less than 2000 inhabitants, and there is no known tubercular consumption in

the town to-day." ' Dr. AV. 11. Jordan, director of the ex- ' periment station at Geneva, New York, stated at the certified milk producers' association last summer that the danger to people from bovine tuberculosis _ is small, lie >aid: "The city of New York spends thousands of dollars for milk inspection, when other causes with danger a hundred times that of the milk supply • are allowed to exist unchallenged.' Human tuberculosis exists to an alarming extent on the Island of Jersey, yet with a large number of cattle, not one tubercular cow has ever been found on the island. The people of Japan, Green- - land, and Turkey do not use cows' milk, yet there is much tuberculosis in all iliosc countries. In this conection it. is. interesting to note that within the last 20 years there has been a decrease in the human death rate from tuberculosis in the United States of 40 per cent., while the use of cow's milk has increased oVcr 100 per cent. Surely, no class uses as much milk as farmers who are also in daily contact" with cattle, yet in' 1000 deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis, 103 farmers died with the dhea=e, 108 fiiishcrliien, 121 gardeners, 12- farm labourers, 167 .grocers, 20!) tailors, 301 dry goods dealers, -lfjl compositors, and 000 miners. Charles lb Gage, a noted bacteriologist of Sail. Franeisci, has recently demonstrated that milk within itself contains an effective weapon of defence against tuberculosis: To'wit: Lactic acid is produced in the process of digestion from the fermentation of the mill? sugar. He conclusively proved that lactic acid thus formed kills the bacillus tuberculosis. Herman O. Averill, late State Commissioner of domestic animals, for Connecticut, says in his report to the Governor: "It is a pleasure to me, and I believe it to bo my duty, to state that the danger to any human contracting tuberculosis by drinking milk is very slight, indeed, if the milk is produced and handled under clean and sanitary conditions. People do not refrain from travelling oil steam or electric cars owing to fear of taking into their systems, through the act of breathing, the dry germs that may be in circulation in the ear, from tho dried sputum of a human consumptive. I believe, however, that during every minute of the trip, they are in greater danger of contracting tuberculosis than they would be from drinking a glass of milk purchased from a reputable dealer, l'lrst, because the disease is far more easily communicated from one human to another than from the bovine to the human. Second, neeauso the respiratory organs are more susceptible to the disease than the

digestive tract." . , Agents of the national bureau of animal husbandry claim that AS per cent, of re- | actions in cattlc are confirmed as correct by post-mortem. This is doubtless true, by counting as they do, nil carcasses, even a single tubercular nodule. less in size than a. pea, and encrusted over so that, with proper care, it would never develop, and the animal never be a uiennra to Ihe health of others. My .moment, based on actual observations ol post.. . inortems or rcactius calt.< and the uuiu-,

ber of carcasses passed ]>y government inspectors, is that over 8U per cent, of all reacting cattle are not a menace (o other cattle and only have the disease in a curable form. It is admitted by all that a reaction in nowise .tells the extent of the disease, whether curable 01* incurable. .Again, advocates of the test admit that tho animal may be so badly diseased that there will bo no reaction. There arc many cattlo that reacted even as long as 10 years ago still doing business and apparently healthy, find many do not react on tho second test months or years afterwards. Tho Ohio station at AVooster, .Tune, 1897, found they had some tubercular cattle. Eleven head were quarantined, two not giving positive reactions, but regarded as suspicious. All were well cared for and kept isolated for 18 month?. All were slaughtered April 11, 180!). 1 was present and saw those cattle slaughtered. The carcasses of tho two suspicious cows were passed by the inspectors as free from tuberculosis. One calf, perhaps six months old, that had been fed the raw, 1 untreated milk from all those cows showed 110 disease germs and was pronounced free from tuberculosis. All the balance were pronounced tubercular, but in two of them tho inspectors used a microscope to lind disease germs. Two cows showed tubercular udders. None of the animals showed a breaking down of tissue except ono bull, with lungs badly diseased and also parts of the carcass. The meat of this-bull was condemned. All the others were passed for human food. In February, 1911,, the State of Ohio slaughtered on tho State fair ground during the corn and dairy show 10 head of cattle that liad reacted. I was present while four were slaughtered.. "While all perhaps showed . tubercular nodules, # not one of the four showed any breaking down of tissue. I learned all were diseased, but none in the advanced stage. Had I the time I could give hundreds of similar cases, where cattlo have been condemned but the tuberculin did not show such a diseased condition to justify tho slaughter.

After quoting further cases, the article concludes:—Animal anatomists claim that over 70 per cent, of thp human bodies contain tubercular bacilli. Dr. Cohnheim, the great German army physician, surgeon and pathologist, after many years, experience in post-mortems, says: "hvery one is some time or other a little bit tuberculous". If this is true in humans, why should we not reasonably expect a very large per cent, of our cattle to be a little bit tuberculous. In diseases of the character of tuberculosis, the disease of cattle and our unsanitary conditions, 111 five years we would have as large a per cent, of tubercular, animals as now. ])r. D. E. Salmon, late chief of the United States bureau of animal industry, says: "To be theoretically perfect in preventing the introduction of tuberculosis, it would be necossary to test sheep, swine, and dogs as well as cattle."' I will add rabbits, cats, and rats, and all fiaes and insects must to destroyed.