The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-14
TUBERCULIN TESTS,
The Cattle Commissioners Have
Their Inning.
REPLY no THE RESOLUTIONS OF
THE MAINE VETERINARY
ASSOCIATION.
Members of This Association Have Caused
All the Complaints

Members of This Association Have Caused
All the Complaints.
For the past few years, the introduc
ton Of tuberculin testing of cattle
throughout the country, has beer
adopted and approved by the cattle com
missioners and veterinarians of the New
England States, as a step far In advance
OF all previous means of diagnosis, fol
| the more prompt and certain detection
of cases of tuberculosis among dairy
animals. These tests have been quite
| largely made use of in this State, and
quite a number of mon have beer
youched for and employed by the cattle
com missi0ners in making such tests.
All cattle going out'of Maine to be sold
at Brighton market were required to be
tested, and proper certificates of identif-
cation furnished to accompany them to
MASSACHUSETTS,; and all cattle for dairy
or breeding purposes coming into Maine
from any of the States, have been sub
leoted to the same rules and regulations.
| Such testing of cattle has steadily in
creased Jas its merits have become bet
ter known, until over seven hundred
COWS have been tested in Maine within
the past sixty days, by orders of various
Boards Of Health and the Cattle
Commissioners, and nearly two hundred
and fifty cows week are also tested for
Brighton Market.
These tests have been largely made by
members of the ''Maine Veterinary
Medical Association" composed of grad
yates, located in different parts of our
State. and everything connected with
the business had progressed favorably
until we began to be in receipt of COM
plants from leading droyers and own
ers of oattle. that they were highly dis
satisfied with both the prices charged
and the manner of testi ng employed by
certain members of this M. V. NJ. Asso-
citation. An Investigation by our board
resulted In good and sufficient proof
in number of instances been improper
~ and dishonesty made, and we then
decided TO vouoh for and employ two
veterinarians who wers not Nenlbers of
the N. V. M. Association.
Then trouble commenced, and there
has been no cessation up to the present
time. On May 9th the above association
held Especial meeting" at Wateryille,
said to be for the purpose of consider
ing the inspection Of cattle for the Mas
saohusetts market, at which time a com.
mittee was chosen to protest our appoint
ments to the Massaoh usetts cattle COM
missiuners, at which time they were
given leave to withdraw. Not satisfied
with this on June 10th, another Especial
meeting" was called at Augusta, said to
be for the same purpose, when anoth-
or committee was appointed to protest to
the Maine Cattle Commissioners, ana on
July Goth our commission met with their
committee at the Falmouth Hotel, Port
land, at which time liberal concessions
were made to them, concessions that
should have silenced their protests, and
avoided any further public exposure of
case, where the cold facts were all
against them.
But at an semi-annual meeting of the
Veterinary Association Mt Lewiston on
July 9th, they passed certain resolves
soon after published by special request of
their secretary in all the leading news
papers of the State. The lewiston Jour
nal publishing as follows:
"QUITE A DIG."
At meeting of the Maine Veterinary
Association, held at Lewiston Tuesday
evening the following resolutions were
passed:
Resolved, That the Maine Veterinary
Association does respectfully protest that
the testing OF cattle for export to Massa-
chusetts or of furnishing milk to our own
citizens Is "a matter of such Importance
that 1t should only be done by competent
and well qualified men, and SO far as 1T
is being dong by men of no professional
training, the results may be misleading
and of no value. We would further re-
solve that il this important test cannot
be made by professional men that there
is no valid reason for it's being made at
all, as it entails IN unwarranted expense
upon the shippers and owners Of suoh
cattle. :
1t has been claimed by some Maine
cattle owners that the tests made upon
their herds by some veterinaries were
wholly superficial and inadequate and
that they. the owners, detected the fact
when the tests were in progress.
The tuberculin for making the tests is
very expensive and the cost of treating
each animal properly as prescribed by the
commissioners regulations is about fifty
oants per head. Herd owners say that
they have known of instances where the
tuberoulin has been diluted to several
times it's original bulk, but of course the
veterinary charged the tuberoulin at full
price.
There is prospect that the commits
sioners will institute nm investigation of
certain veterinarians who have been con-
Quoting tests.
In the Maine Farmer of July .23d after
publishing the Resolutions they say edi-
torially:
Whew! Where Is DIR. Bailey? is some
body hungry for place and pull?
The cattle commission. having no al
tentative but to reply to the criticisms
| contained in the Resolutions by the