Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-03-29
TRY TO STOP SPREAD
OF TUBERCULOSIS
LAW PROPOSED TO MAKE
TESTING COMPULSORY

Can Be Sold Statistics Show
That Valuable Herds Have Been
Ruined BY Purchase of Infected
Animals.
In order to protect the 100, 900 dairy
herds of Wisconsin, against further
ravages of tuberculosis, a bill has
just been introduced into the legisia
ture providing for the testing of all
cattle before they are sold. The ex-
listing laws, which make necessary the
inspection of cattle before they are
brought into the state, protect dairy
men and breeders against Infection
from outside the state. The proposed
law is designed to afford similar pro-
lection by preventing the spread of
the disease from one herd to another
within the state through the buying
and selling Of tubercular cattle. The
provision of the law on this point is
as follows: "No cattle shall be sold
tested for tuberculosis with one year
previous to the sale. -
Certified copies of the results of the
test, which must be made by disin-
tersted persons, are to be filed with
the Sanitary Live Stock Board, and
no transfer is to be regarded as legal
until the certificate has been approve d
by the board and returned to the sell
Ter. The person who sells cattle the
law further provides, shall deliver to
the purchaser an affidavit stating
whether tuberculosis has been found
to exist in his herd within twelve
months prior to the sale; and if so,
how many cattle were affected, and
whether any of the cattle sold have
been exposed to the tubercular ami
mails or infected stables within three
months of the tine when the cattle
to be sold have been tested for tuber-
culosis.
The bill is a part of a vigorous
campaign which has been carried a
gainst bovine tuberculosis during the
past two years by the University OF
Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment
Station in cooperation with the Wis
consin Live Stock Sanitary Board.
By means of demonstrations to hun
dreds of farmers at the Ten days far
mers' course, and by full explanations
of the tuberculIn test given to all the
students of the college of agriculture,
DR.. III. l.. Russell of the department
of bacteriology of the university, who
is also a member of the Live Stock
Sanitary Board, has explained the
dangers of permitting valuable dairy
herds to go INFESTED. Bulletins have
been issued from time to time by the
University Agricultural Experiment
Station explaining the methods of
testing and showing the disasterous
results of permitting the dread disease
to get hold on valuable live stock.
The University of Wisconsin Agri-
cultural Experiment Association, con-
sisting of l, 200 young farmers all over
the state who have attended the col
lege of agriculture, have also taken
their own herds, and are now doing a
similar service for their neIghbors.
Thus the campaign Of education is
being pushed all over the state with
view to protecting the thousands of
valuable dairy herds Tor which Wis
consin is famous.
In work king out the result of these
tests as they have been sent to the
bacteriolog laboratory of the col
lege OF agriculture, the most frequent
cause of the development of tuber-
culosis in herds that have been free
from the disease, has been the pur-
chase of animals at public auction or
at private sale. Since, except in the
last stages of the disease, there is no
effective means of Determining the
presence of tuberculosis, neither seller
nor purchaser is aware of the fact that
the animal is infected. Many to be
used for breeding purposes, with
view to developing the best class of
dairy cattle. By thus purchasing
cattle which, though of the best
breeds are infected with tuberculo-
sis, the breeder is unwlttingly TAX
ing the first step toward the distruc-
tion rather than the improvement of
the stock. By requiring that all ami
mails be subjected to the tuberculin
test before the sale. and by demanding
that an affidavit be furnished of the
healthy conditions both of the partic-
ular animals and of the whole herd,
the law seeks to protect the innocent
purchaser against loss of money, time,
and effort.
The records of the college of agri.
culture furnish many striking exam
pies of the way IN which the disease
is spread broadcast by the wide dis
persion of animals through purchase
from a single infected head. In one
instance forty-six cattle from one
herd were sold to twelve different per-
sons. Of those forty-six thirty-twt
responded to the tubercuIin test, al
though none of the animals showed
any appearance of the disease at the
time of the sale. Through this sale Of