tuberculosis, States should allow a reasonable compensation
for the animals which it is necessary to slaughter on account
of being affected with this disease. It is certainly a matter
of great importance to any State to have its herds free from
tuberculosis and its animals and animal products above suspicion.
With the recent demonstration of the communicability of animal
tuberculosis to man, a demonstration which has been made by so
many investigators and on such competent authority that the
fact can no longer be questioned, there is a disposition on
the part of sanitary authorities to scrutinize more carefully
those animal products which are liable to be infected. It is,
therefore, becoming every day more important for every State
to repress tuberculosis within its borders and in that manner
to maintain the reputation of its animal products. Where it
is not deemed advisable to provide for slaughtering of all
reacting animals with sufficient compensation from the State
to make this measure satisfactory to the stockmen, the State
may provide for the supervision of herds handled according to
the Bang method or some modification of it. For the protection
of its own citizens who consume dairy products, if not for the
protection of its customers in other States, every State should
make some arrangement which would lead to the removal of cows
with tuberculous udders and those suffering from generalized
tuberculosis from herds which supply milk, cream, and butter for
human food. This much is essential for the public health, but
it would be wise to go further and provide for the slaughter of
all cows which show evidence on physical examination of being
affected with tuberculosis.
5. In cases where cattle owners are to have their tuberculous
animals slaughtered in an effort to free their herds from
disease the State should further assist them by disinfecting
or at least supervising the disinfection of the contaminated
stables. It is a somewhat difficult matter for persons not
acquainted with the practical operations of disinfection to carry
out this measure successfully, even after they have been given
explicit instructions. It is impossible to impress sufficiently
the importance of thoroughness upon persons who are lacking in
experience in this line of work. As a consequence the majority of
the premises disinfected by stockmen without the assistance of
experts are imperfectly disinfected, and the disease breaks out
again among the animals which are subsequently introduced. This
is discouraging to the owner and serves to fix the impression
that it is impossible to eradicate tuberculosis. This impression
is already widespread, but it is essentially wrong, though it
can only be removed by object lessons in the eradication of
the disease under State supervision. There is no reason why
tuberculosis should not be eradicated as pleuro-pneumonia was
eradicated. The contagion is more widespread and the expense
would be greater, but there are no inherent difficulties to
prevent the success of such an undertaking.
6. When a herd has been freed from tuberculosis by the slaughter
of all reacting animals, and the premises have been properly
disinfected, the State should give further aid to the stock
owner by testing without expense the animals which he desires to
purchase for renewing his herd. This measure is essential to the
success of any plan for lessening the prevalence of this disease
or eradicating it. The expense of testing such animals is almost
too great to be borne by the individual, and, moreover, private
tests are often unsatisfactory and unreliable.
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
silently corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences
within the text and consultation of external sources. Some hyphens
in words have been silently added when a predominant preference was
found in the original book. Except for those changes noted below, all
misspellings and inconsistent spellings have been retained.
On the table on page 13, footnote b was changed to footnote d, and
footnote c was changed to footnote e.
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
public domain.
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.