Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1907-04-01
LAW TO MAKE TESTING OF CAT
TIE COMPULSORY.
FOR VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN
Animals Must Be Tested Before Sale
Striking Examples of Evils of
the Disease-Centers of Infection
known-PhiIosophy of the Treat
ment.

providing for the testing of all cattle
before they are sold. The existing
laws, which make necessary the in
spection 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: mo cattle shall be sold
within this state which have not been
tested for tuberculosis within one
year previous to the SALE
Certified copies of the results of
the test, when must be made by US.
interested 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
approved by the board and returned
To the seller. 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
12-mOnths prior to the sale; and if so,
bow 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 lie time when the cattle
to be sold have been tested for tu-
berculosis.
Part of Vigorous Campaign.
The bill is part of vigorous
campaign which has been carried
against bovine tuberculosis during
the past two years by the University
of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment
Station in cooperation with the W IS
consin Live ~,ocn sanitary Board By
means of demonstrations to hundreds
of farmers at the ten days farmers
course, and by full explanations of
the tuberculin tests given to all the
students of the college of agriculture,
Dr.. H. l.. Russell of the department of
bacteriOlogy of the university, who is
also a member of the Sanitary Board,
has explained the dangers of permit
ting valuable dairy herds to go I'M
tested. Bulletins have been issued
Agricultural Experiment Station ex-
planning the methods of testing, and
showing the disastrous results of
permitting the dread disease to get
hold on valuable live stock The
University of Wisconsin agricultural
experiment association consisting of
1920 young farmers all over the state
who have attended the college of
agriculture, have also taken UP the
work this year, and over half of them
have already tested their own herds,
and are now doing similar service
for their neighbors Thus the cam
paign of education is being pushed
all over the state with view to pro-
tecting the thousands of valuable
dairy herds for which Wisconsin is
famous.
Dangers in Buying Animals.
In working out the results of these
tests as they have been sent to the
archaeological laboratory of the col
lege of agriculture, the most frequent
cause of the development of tuberculo-
sis 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
times the animals purchased are of
the highest grade of full blooded
stock to be used for breeding pur-
poses. with view to developing the
best class of dairy cattle By thus
cattle which, though of the
best breeds, are infected with tubercu-
losis, the breeder is unwittingly TAX
ing the first step toward the distruc-
ton rather than the Improvement of
the stock. By requiring that all an
imals be subjected TO the tuberculin
test before the sale, and by demanding
that an affidavit be furnished of the
healthy condition both of the particu-
lar animal and of the whole herd, the
law seeks to protect the innocent
against loss of money, time
and effort
Strikinu EXAMPLES of Evil
The records of the college of agri- |
culture furnish many striking ex-
amples of the way in which the dis
ease is spread broadcast by the wide
of animals through pur
.hase from a single infected herd. In
me instance forty-six cattle from the
herd were sold to twelve different |
persons. OF these forty-six, thirty
,wo responded to the tuberculin test,