The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-11
CATTLE TUBERCULOSIS.

Losses From the Disease to Farmers
 Are Large
 In regard to the losses to farmers from tuberculosis in cattle, the com mittee on the prevention of tubercu- losis makes public this statement:
 It is a difficult matter to estimate with any approach to accuracy the losses froma disease like tuberculosis concerning which the statistics are in- complete in every respect. There are now, however, approximately 1000 car casses of beef and 65.000 carcasses of hogs condemned each year by the fed eral meat inspectors on account of tu- berculosis. We should not be far wrong in estimating the loss on these carcass ses at present prices as $40 each on the beef and SIP each on the pork, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. We should, therefore, have as the net annual loss from tine con demnation of carcasses $440,000 for beef and $7S0,000 for pork, or total of $l.- 22O,O 900. This statement, however, does not include the 647 parts of beef car ca sses and the 142,1O5 parts of hog ca1- casses which it was necessary last year to condemn for the same reason, and the approximate value of which cannot be ascertained.
 In addition to the carcasses condemn ed by federal inspectors, there are considerable number condemned by the state and municipal inspectors. These are mostly carcasses of dairy cattle killed in the work of suppressing tuber- culosls, or of cows no longer profitable in the dairy which are sent for slaugh- ter to the smaller abattoirs. The az gregate number of these has not been ascertained, but in some years it has amounted to several thousand carcass scs
 The losses to the dairy industry from tuberculosis have been enormous from decrease in milk and depreciation and death of animals, The dairy herds have been affected to a greater extent than any others, and the infection as rule spread through the cows of a herd un- 1 til 5 to 80 per cent. of the animals were affected. In the early stages of | the disease the product of the cows is | not visably lessened, but as the tuber- culosis process develops the animals often become feverlsh, their milk is diminished in quantity and they lose flesh and are no longer profitable. The losses from shinkage of the milk and from the destruction of so many cows must be tremendous, but 1t has never l been definitely determined.
 l An extremely serious phase of this subject is that the effect of the dis ease in destroying valuable families of cattle and blood lines which can never be renewed. Tn most of the breeds there are certain families or strains of l blood which have been developed by long and skillful selection and which represnt the one marked success in a breeders life. The representative ami malls of such strain are generally few in number and may all be in one |herd. Under such circumstances the introduction of tuberculosis has often meant the annlhilation of the strain and the plotting out of the achievement of lifetime of toll and study. Such losses can scarcely be measured in dol 
 lars and cents, but they are no less real and no less serious as an obstacle to the development lof the cattle indus try.
 The influence upon our export trade of regulations relative to tuberculosis
 will probably become more and more |unfavorable. Breeding and dairy cat
 tie for Canada and Argentian must
 now be tested and found free from the disease before they will lbe admitted
 The tendency everywhere isto make
 more stringent regulations, and any
 considerable increase in the prevalence
 of the disease would have an unfav-
 orable effect upon the sale of live ani-
 mals meats and dairy products even If burdensome regulations are not i'm posed. TO meet successfully the in-
 creasing competition in the markets of the world 1t is important to have pro-
 ducts which can be shown are pro-
 duced from healthy animals and which
 do not carry danger of any kind to the
 health of the consumer.-From the New
 York Tribune.