AN EXPENSIVE DISEASE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 127, 26 June 1909, Page 6

AN EXPENSIVE DISEASE

. HOW FARMERS SJIOUU) DEAL I WITH TUBERCULOSIS. ! j ADVICE BY MR. REAKES. ' ,' Mr. C. J. Reakes, the Chief Govern-' ment Veterinarian, delivered an interesting address n't iPnlmcrstoii North 0:1 iWeducsday. He began by observing Ithat the question of pasteurisation had ,a very important bearing upon the treatment of tuberculosis and other diseases which affected cattle, and pigs in 'New Zealand. We were fortunate in that we had not a very large proportion of tubercular cattle, but at the same ,timc there was a sufficient number to .make it necessary to take every possible (precaution, not only to prevent the .disease getting any worse, but also to .try to reduce the number of affected animals. ! -AX. URGENT NECESSITY. , He regretted to have to say that tho for taking some such steps .was greater and more urgent now than it had ever beon in the whole course of his experience. It had been found that the number of tubercular cattle and pigs was increasing every year—certainly not very largely, tut at least by o-.ie per cent, in the ease of cattle and somewhat more in that of pigs. The question of tuberculosis in pigs was becoming a very serious one. Various method* ;bf dealing with it had been tried, and in some cases what practically amount,ed to wholesale slaughter had been .gone in for, but the result was that after spending a very great deal of .money the owners had found themselves .ho better off than in the beginning. But lit was quite necessary to try to cull out from the dairy herds of the country .all animals so badly affected as to be Capable of spreading infection, and particularly those cows' which wero giving milk containing tuberculin bacilli. These were tho cows principally responsible I for the prevalence of the disease among pigs, and also among calves, which Were ,fcd on infected separator milk. He .thought it would Ibe a very great mistake to ask 'farmers to go in for a .wholesale application of the tuberculin test. He believed in the test a!.' an aid

I.to diagnosis and as a help to tho farmer I who desired to make his herd clean. I PREVENTIVE MEASURES I NECESSARY.

t Wliat he did think it was necessary ■ to do now was to go in for some effective preventive measures, the best of .which was the .pasteurisation of the by- , .products of the Uniiy factories. Other countries had recognised the worth of this system and had made it compulsory by law that pasteurisation should be carried out. Ho had been assured that iu Denmark they had found it one of the most effective measures for preventing the spread of the disease. In North America they had found that the heating of all skim milk to a temperature of 116 Fahrenheit had prevented tuberculosis among the animals consuming the by-products. Beccntly ho had personally had a most.practical experience of the value of the operation. A farmer ;in the South who had reared pigs last year fed them on milk which had not been pasteurised. Three lots had been killed, and they had .been found to be tubercular in the following proportions: Killed. . Tubercular, Percentage. «l 38 61.90 HO 65 59.00 60 60 100,00 , Hie pigs were all young, and it was quite obvious that they must have been taking the disease into their system through the affected milk. This year the farmer had installed an apparatus ,to heat the milk and render the germs harmless. His pigs were reared from the same stock and under the same conditions, save that the milk was heated before being fed to them. The result when the./ cams to bo Jdlled was as | under:— Killed. Tubercular. Percentage. 28 3 10.7 M 0 0 40 0 ,„ 3i ■ 0 .0 ™ 3 10.0 2 < 3 . 11.1 These were facts widen had a very important bearing upon the question of tubercular discoso in cattle, for calves reared upon infected milk which had pot rendered innocuous were start-

m life with the gcnns of disease in their system. He knew of cheese, factories where the whey had been treated for some time past, the experience of the suppliers being that their calves mid pigs never became diseased, FINANCIAL BENEFIT

Ho was quite sure tlio community a> a whale would benefit financially by' tiro adoption of pasteurisation, and that tiiu little it cost .would bo fully made up. It must be remembered that tuberculosis caused the pastoral community more trouble. than any other disease Which existed, l'eoptc did not fullv re cognise the tax it imposed upon them, but he could assure them that it was' very cousiderable every vcar. Ho was perfectly certain that 'if they could set a system brought in by which all dairy by-products would Ibe pasteurisaLflji would do moi^A Q under that couJdJxrSuopted. H was a very accessary thing to do, ! QUESTIONS. A number of delegates then took tlfo opportunity of asking questions of tlio experts.

Mr, J. Marx asked whether some difft culty would not be experienced by sup. pliers in carting homo a number of cans of hot skim milk.

I Mr. Cuddie said the trouble would not be so very great. The temperature won ,1 only be 170 at the start, and it would drop rapidly on the way To auothcr questioner. Mr! Cuddi* said the cost of pasteurisation added about one-tenth to one-itraentieth of a penny to the cOs't per po um l of , butt He had no means of ascertaining whether butter from pasteurised milt brought better prices, but he knew that the best .butter always brought the tort price, and that if the standard of he whole output were raised much Uett „ general rcs.,l s would ho obtained. Several delegates stated that thev bad found it .paid them very well to pasteurise. *

Mr. Reakes «nd Re «,„m not „ of in Ik and whey rendered it indiIgest.ble He was perfectly convinced that calves and .p i)?s f c d on pn-steuris, by-products did ,«mch better than i„ the .other case.

\ The mcctiM jwsscd a henrtv vote of tiro*, to toth (Niri, Cmhlie, „n, Rentes for tar interesting addresses land for the information they had irwri the questioners. ' " *