The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-01-22
Relation Of tuberculosis to the Dairy
Interests OF Vermont.


ing Of the Vermont Dairymen's Asso.
ciation
1t is impossible to have dairy herd,
tuberculosis and a profitable business
united. There is nothing very new
about this disease among cattle. II has
been the object of adverse legislation
in nearly all European countries and in
many of our states for years, and until
quite recently it was deemed to be i'm
practicable to do anything toward it's
suppression further than to remove
day, believe, this claim is considered
wrong. The use of Koch's lymph as a
diagnostc agent in detecting this dis
ease has rendered valueless the conclu-
sions arrived at under other conditions.
In few herds in our state the dis
ease has been recognized and commended
with for several years, but to the great
majority of us, about the first we knew
of the matter was at the meeting of
this association in Burlington, TWO
years ago. The announcement then
made of the results of an examination
of the herd of the Experiment Station
was to most of us lightning from a
clear sky. The Board of Agriculture,
in their capacity of cattle commission
ers, found themselves facing a condition,
not theory, of which they possessed
little if any advantage over the ordinary
dairyman in the matter of helpful in
formation. Under the circumstances
the board did the only rational thing
possible-they informed themselves in
the premises. A few tests were finally
made of herds where calls were most
urgent during the spring, summer and
fall of 1894. The bureau of Animal
Industry supplied tuberculin; the state
paid for making the test, and the per-
sons whose herds were tested killed
diseased animals at their own expense.
In 1894 the legislature passed law
including tuberculosis among conta-
gious diseases and authorized the Board
of Education, as cattle commissioners,
to do work for the purpose of suppress
ing the disease. Since February l, 1896,
when the law went into effect, the
board has been called upon by the
farmers of the state for more work than
it has been possible to do.
In my district, the eastern half of the
state, 1876 herds have been tested. Tu-
berculosis has been found in fifty herds.
The whole number of cattle tested in
my district is 1904, and the number of
animals diseased and killed is 1877; the
amount paid for these cattle from the
state treasury is S2,791. 1t appears
that twenty.on herds had only one
case each; twelve herds had each six
cases or over; three herds had sixty of
the 1877 cases. The work has been done
largely where the disease was suspected
We feel that we may say in regard to
the nature of tuberculosis that it is pro-
duced by a germ which has been named
the tubercle bacillus. The work of our
scientists has also shown that the dis.
ease may be communicated from one
animal to another by vaccination. We
believe that it is communicated in other
ways-either by inhaling or being taken
with food. Our own experience has
been that when case is found in a
herd other cases are very likely to be
the animals standing near by, and our
experience has shown some striking
cases of the infectious character of the
disease. One case was herd of twelve
animals where seven were diseased and
killed. The owner had lost twenty an
imals from his herd before calling upon
the commissioner, within a period of
eight years, making total of twenty
seven animals killed. Eight years be-
fore, an old COW was brought into the
herd affected with tuberculosis, and
died in short time. The twenty. seven
cases that followed was the direct result
of infection.
In another case calves ran in q
pasture with an old COW that was nearly
dead with tuberculosis, and that was
afterwards killed. These calves, as
yearlings, ran the next year with the
next crop of four calves, and were kept
with them through the winter. An
examination this season showed every
one of these young animals diseased, as
we'll as several of the older stock.
On the other hand, we have found
instances where the disease had made
but little progress in an exposed herd.
Some may say that animals may be-
come affected with tuberculosis by be-
ing brought near the disease, but we
cannot say that they will be. Young
animals and those of little vitality are
more likely to contract the disease than
the strong, mature animals. / have
been unable to ascertain that the liabil-
ity to infection was in any way con-
nected with the breed of the animal.
We have been able to trace the pres
ence of tuberculosis in herd to it's
source, and in nearly every case have
found that source to be diseased ami
NAL which has been brought into the
herd.
We have found two or three cases of
young animals that were diseased while
there was none in the other stock. In
these cases the calves were fed cream
cry skim milk, and tuberculosis was
found in the herds of the patrons of
the creamery. 1t looked very much as
though the disease in these cases came
from the milk fed to them. That the
disease is communicated by the milk of
diseased animals seems to be pretty
well established.
Our experience in using tuberculin
to detect tuberculosis has been such as
to give US great faith in this diagnostic
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