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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 735, 14 August 1953, Page 5

Sir,-Mrs. W. B. Crowley claims that in a recent broadcast debate on "Raw Versus Pasteurised Milk" she had "so much evidence to show why raw milk Was so much better than pasteurised" that time was too short for her. Let anybody who is inclined to take Mrs. Crowley’s word for her "evidence" turn to the best and fullest source of information, Professor Wilson’s war-time report to the British Government, Let me set out a few facts. ’ *" (1) Wilson’s report was an exhaustive survey of all the evidence. Thé conclusion was wholly in favour of general pasteurisation, because it has no, nutritional disadvantage and because it is the only final and comprehensive safeguard against the "many dangers of a raw milk supply. (2) The British Medical Journal, editorially reviewing ‘this book, entirely endorsed it and observed that opposition to pasteurisation, in the medical profession, was now confined to a small minority of odd men out. (3) Wilson’s report had been preceded by one made by the Imperial Bureau of Animal Nutrition. Its conclusions squared with Wilson’s. (4).In Christchurch, last year, the local branch of the British Medical Association resolved by 68 votes to one to issue a committee’s report on the subject: it completely upheld pasteurisation. (5) e British Ministries of Health, Food, and Agriculture and Fisheries, and a joint committee of the B.M.A. and the National Veterinary Medical Association, are agreed that the sharp decline in recent British tuberculosis notifications and nonpulmonary (bovine infection) mortality figures is due tq herd-testing and the steady increase in pasteurisation. ‘ ‘(6) No outbreak of milk-borne disease has ever been traced to a pasteurised supply, treated by approved plant under ap"proved conditions, with .one very dubious exception. Innumerable outbreaks of milkborne disease have been traced to raw milk ly, from tested as well as untested herds. New Zealand contributes many examples to the record. (7) Scandinavians, the Americans, the French, the Germans, and the Canadians, who all pasteurise wherever they can are not crazy; they know what they are doing, and why. (8) Lord Bledisloe, who had long upheld herd-testing and culling and hygienic dairy and distribution routine as. full and sufficient protection of the milk supply, said in the House of Lords a few years ago that he had changed his opinion. These measures were essential, but they were not enough; the last safeguard of pasteurisation would still be essential. And that is exactly what every informed: advocate of pasteurisation holds: that it is not a substitute for other precautions, ut an indispensable final one.

SUFFLAMINANDA EST

(Wellington)_