PURE MILK SUPPLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 January 1939, Page 3

PURE MILK SUPPLY

CAMPAIGN ADVOCATED. The modern plan of providing free milk for school children has impelled Dr A. G. Ritchie to pursue a campaign for a pure milk supply (says the N.Z. Farmer Weekly). Dr Ritchie is president of the Southland A. and P. Association. He urges that all the dairy cattle in Southland should be tested for tuberculosis. At the present time barely 3 per cent are so tested. “It might be thought,” said Dr Ritchie, “that very few dairy cows are affected by the disease, but in one herd it was found that 20 per cent were suffering.” The doctor knows that all the milk supplied to school children is pasteurised, and because of that the general view was probably held that milk from tuberculosis-infected animals could not do any harm. However, he holds very strong views on the effects of pasteurisation. “When milk is pasteurised the chemical constituents are upset through the precipitation of the calcium salts.” We know that differences of opinion exist amongst the medical authorities as to the changes milk undergoes when pasteurised, but the view is commonly held that the modern process of pasteurisation does much more good than harm. It may neutralise diseases other than tuberculosis. In big cities like Auckland it is not compulsory that milk should be pasteurised, although the “count” is watched pretty closely. A cow may react to the tuberculosis test, but the disease may exist in a part other than in the mammary system that may not affect the milk. At the moment the creation of a “scare” does not appear to be justified, but everyone will agree that if Dr Ritchie’s ideal of a tuberculosisfree dairy population could be attained, it would be a wonderful advertisement for New Zealand’s products.