PURE MILK SUPPLY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10132, 31 October 1910, Page 3

PURE MILK SUPPLY.

(Dalgety's Review.)

Recently there have been some important official enquiries in England as to existing defects in dairy farms, and in the methods by which milk reaches the consumer. Though some of the facts brought forward? in these investigations and the remedies suggested may not be applicable in their entirety to the circumstances of this country, an abstract of the more salient points in them may not be without its uses to the dairy farmer. In the first place, we shall refer to the report to the British Local Government Board, by Dr. Eastwood, one of the experts on the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, on the methods adopted in various American States for tho control of the disease, and the prevention of the communication of bovine tuberculosis to man. The States to which special attention was given were Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. As regards these countries, the report indicated that the local sanitary authorities enforces regulations for the control of the milk supply by the exercise of its own unaided powers, and that this is sanctioned both by law and by public opinion. Aggressive programmes of milk reform have not succeeded in America, and improvements are mainly due to the acceptance of reasonable recommendations offered by tho medical officer, the American dairy farmer recognizing fully that the consumer's interest and his own are thoroughly identical in matters of control and eradication of the disease to which the local sanitary authority gives its chief attention, The American milk commissioners, which aim at the production of thoroughly wholesome milk, are making slow but steady progress in this direction, and Dr. Eastwood sets out his conclusions at some length as to what might be affected in Great Britain after a detailed study of Transatlantic results. With regard to the disease, which is the most important matter referred to in the report, it is shown that it would be useless to attempt the formulation of any plan for the Complete eradication of bovine tuber-' culosis throughout the country within a limited period. It was imperative in the interests of agriculture that dairycows with advanced or generalized tuberculosis, or with tuberculosis of the udder, should he destroyed, and the public must be prepared to meet the cost of adequately! inspecting the condition of dairy cattle. The testing of herds with tuberculin should be undertaken at the public expense, and these and other provisions would have the indirect effect of educating the farmer. Commercial pasteurisation was firmly established, and would ■ not bo abolished, but it seemed both possible and desirable to institute a system of inspection which should provide a guarantee that the work was done efficiently. Routine bacteriological examinations of samples were also advocated by Dr. Eastwood as affording the most reliable, tho cheapest and often the quickest means of discovering when milk had been improperly handled. Finally, this eminent pathologist pointed out that on arrival at its destination by rail, milk should be in sealed cans, bearing the name of the farm where it was"produced. Promiscuous mixing of milk, intended for- sale, with out pastuerisation, was undesirable. If some mixing were necessary for the purpose of averaging the quality of milk, sold as raw milk, the dealer should be saddled with the responsibility of labelling the mixture with the names of the two or more sources from which it had been obtained.Another important contribution to the subject was a paper read last year at a meeting of the Royal Sanitary Institute at Birmingham. It was by Mr J. Malcolm, Veterinary Superintendent to the Birmingham Corporation, who, after enlarging on the importance of the subject, both from the producers and consumers point of view, said that besides affording necessary protection to the public, the elimination of the scourge would relieve farmers from much anxiety and loss by death and depreciation. He quoted the report of the Royal commission on the matter, which showed that:—"There can be no doubt that in a certain number of cases, the tuberculosis occurring in the human subject, especially in children, is the direct result of bovine tuberculosis." Mr Malcolm showed that the disease was plainly one of the dairy cow, and he estimated that relative to their respective numbers, tuberculosis was five times more' common in cows than in bulls, and fifteen times more common in oxen or heifers. No one now questioned that tuberculosis was simply and solely a contagious disease, and not a hereditary condition condition in any true sense of the word, as formerly was generally believed. Most calves were born quite free, from disease. A State measure, based on the contagious character of tuberculosis,whose provisions were obligatory,and whose benefits might be shared by all, was the first and great essential". Towards limiting the scourge, for complete extermination seems to be regarded as hopeless, two prominent plans have been put Forward, that called the Bang method which has been in operation in Denmark for a good number of years, and that of Professor Ostertag. a voluntary plan widely adopted in "North Germany. The former meth-

od is isolation, and its object ic gradually to effect eradication of the disease from the herd at little cost, simply by segregation of the diseased from the* healthy. Its success is governed partly by the accuracy of two tuberculin tests, upon which effective segregation depends, and_ partly by the thoroughness with which the segregation is carried out. The object of the Ostertag plan is to minimise bovine tuberculosis by the process of eliminating all infectious cases, and it is based on the fact that all postnatal tuberculosis arises by infection. The degree of success attending the scheme depends upon the degree of accuracy in recognizing cases disseminating tubercle bacilli as soon as they arise. Mr Malcolm stronglv recommends a combination of the two plans, but as regards the latter, he thinks that_ instead of beino- local and permissive, it should be national, obligatory, and applicable to all herds, and in the place of annual there should be bi-monthly inspection. Further he is strong upon the point of slaughter m every proved ' case. Mr A. T Eginton, Chief Sanitarv Inspector oi Chester, has added to the information on pure milk supply in a paper read before the Sanitary Inspectors' Association in that city. The author chiefly directs attention to the adulteration ot and the impurities added to the milk in its transit from producer to consumer, and in reference to the first said that in London alone nearly £1 500,000 was spent annually on milk so called, of which, according to the recent government return, £/U,000 to £BO,OOO was paid for water. Exonerating the farmer, the carelessness and uncleanlmess so otte.i found i» transit was strongly condemned by Mr Eginton, who stated that milk when it left the udder contained very few germs. A still further contribution to the subject is an article in a dairy paper m connections with the conditions in Devonshire, which perhaps best approximates to this country as recards climate Tt is by Dr. H. B. Mapleton, Medical Officer of Health for Newton Abbot and Dawlish districts. lne ceneral tenor of the article is a plea for more open air in the treatment of cows, which is recognized as the best preventive of tuberculosis, and that the milking should be, if possible, in the open, the local climate favouring this in comparison with Denmark or the North or Midlands of England. The writer is also strongly in favour of inspection and compensation bv the State, knowing by the State, knowing by experience that an animal may be to all appearance sound and even fat, while the internal organs are riddled wica disease.