BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1940, Page 4

BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS

MASTERTON TESTING SYSTEM TO CONTINUE. MINISTER MEETS COUNCIL’S PROTEST. As the result of representations made by the Masterton Borough Council to the Minister of Agriculture, the present system of testing herds supplying milk for consumption in the borough is to continue. It will be remembered that at the last meeting of the council it was decided to protest to the Minister against a proposal to adopt a more intricate tuberculosis test for dairy herds. It was pointed out that the single intradermal test which the Government proposed to abandon, had been applied for some years past to Masterton town supply cows with excellent results. In his reply, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Lee Martin, states that the actual method of application of the tuberculosis test is naturally a matter for the officers of his Department. The variation in the method, he points out, is the outcome of certain results having taken place regarding sensibility to the intradermal test in herds, in which the incidence of tuberculosis is high cr even in certain districts. Owing to the low occurrence of the disease in the Masterton supply herds and also to the fact that regular testing has taken place for some years back, the Department, he states, has no objection to the use of the intradermal test in those herds and arrangements will be made to meet the wishes of the council in the matter.