The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-01-30
From the Baltimore San.
BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS TESTS.
Mr.. Charles A. Councilman, of Baltimore
County, Tells How to Detect and
Treat the Disease.

Inrep1y to many questions from farmers abou
tuberculosis and bovine tuberculosis will stat
for their benefit: Tuberculin is prepared from
Rlycerinated bouillon in which tubercle bacill
have been grown from six to eight weeks. The
bouillon culture is first boiled for two hours to
kill all the living organisms. 1t is then filtered
under pressure through germproof earthen
ware filter to remove the dead bodies of the germs
and concentrated by evaporation, little car
boc acid added, and it is then bottled for distri
button. Its injection into COWS affected with
tuberculosis is followed in IL hours by rise OF
temperature, which lasts several hours and
gradually declines to normal. 1t is prepared by
the Department of Agriculture at Washington
and distributed among the various State expert
ment stations for distribution.
| Any intelligent dairyman who will make a
little effort to familiarize himself with the test
| can use it on his own COWS with good results.
The expense of employing a professional to per-
| form every detail of the test is not only often
| prohibitive, but in many districts no qualified
practitioner is available.
To make your tests you need veterinary ny
| podermic syringe of at least six cubic centime-
tiers capacity, with a number of Short stout
| needles, reinforced at the base. You will re-
| quire half dozen guaranteed clinical thermom-
| eters for veterinary purposes, which are made
| of thicker glass with ring in the end. The
| veterinary hypodermic syringe can be purchased
the tSe SS from almost any drug Store
| You will require pint can of creolin and one
pound of lard. Your tuberculin outfit is now
complete, and you are ready to begin taking the
normal temperatures of the cows you want to
test.
Smear the bulb of the thermometer and the
index finger with the lard after you have mixed
with the lard a teaspoonful of the creoln. This
Will facilitate the operation. Insert the Their
mometer the full length fasten 1t with cord
frin an Qfori Ia mi
will not be broken.
!. The normal temperature of milk cows averages
remain three minutes. Take the first tempera-
ture after the mornings milking. and at two
hours intervals during the day and after the last
Have small book, number your cows, and keep
record of the animals temperature at the vari-
dTr1g the o r
your hypodermic syringe and disinfect by draw
ing it full of creolin, emptying and rinsinR in
syringe in the creolin to disinfect, then fill the
syringe through the needle, from the bottle of
tuberculin and avoid communicating it with DUST
Set the burr on the piston rod of the syringe,
that not more than the dose intended can be in
jected. The size of dose is stated on the tuber
culin bottle. Make your injection in the side of
the neck, where the skin Is thin and loose. A
fold of the skin s taken in the left hand. and the
syringe inserted in the pocket thus formed and
the dose injected. After the injection, about
the TENTH twelfth, fourteenth and sixteenth
hours, take the temperature of the cows When
COW shows rise above 1O3' Fair. 1t Is better
to take the temperature at more frequent inter-
walls. The elevation of temperature comes on
gradually, although in the more profound cases,
where temperature goes above 1859 Fahr., the
rise is frequently abrupt. When the tempera-
ture reaches 1040 Fair. or more and is maintained
for some hours the cow has tuberculosis. Not
withs landing she may appear in fine condition,
she may be badly infected, and be quite as dan
gerous in spreading the disease as those that
shSw the physical symptoms The disease as tb is
tubercles is so great that their presence inter
feres with the duty of some vital organ. The re-
ton of disease In the majority of the COWS the
disease pursues leisurely course, consuming
months before causing death Others develop q
and its progress is so gradual that its presence
does not inspire apprehension to the average
dairyman. The value Of tunercu.n as dag
to dispose of his reacting cows to those farmers
and cattle dealers who do not have faith in the
tnbercui1 test instead OF aeepHg t1e stCGk an
and in the end selling them to the pudding
butcher for about the value of the hair. hide and
horns.
The farmer who wishes to keep his herd free
of tuberculosis should test his COWS every six
months. / do not know whether you can trans
the preponderance of opinion in the pathological
world is in the affirmative, and the sentiment Is
growing among the milk consumers in the cities
that the disease is menace to public health.
The health departments in the cities would
have long since Jumped at conclusions" and
city had they not been afraid of the immense
cost and the scarcity of milk it would produce.
Such law they have the undoubted right to en-
act, and they may spring any drastic law upon
you at any moment, as they know that 30 per
cent, of the milk supplied the city Is from tuber-
cuous cows. Guaranteed milk from nonacting
COWS is bringing much higher price than the
general run of milk.
In the western States the large city daries are
furnishing the farmers and milk shippers COM
plete tuberculin outfit with full printed instruc-
lions how to use 1t, and the western farmers are
testing their herds and selling the reacting cows
The stock dealers are shipping these COWS to
those States that do not have the compulsory
tuberculin test, and it Is only question of time
that our State will be swamped with tn6ercpIosis
lature to pass law that any cow sold in the
State for milk purposes must be accompanied
with tuberculin certificate from qualified
State veterinarian. The trustees of the State
Department of Agriculture at College Park
should be given sufficient appropriation to en-
able them to appoint number or qual1ned
veterinarians to see that the law is complied
The Bangs method, which Denmark has adop-
ted to rid that country of tuberculosis, is not
practicable in this country, owing to our labor
conditions It is better to sell the reacting COWS
to the butcher than to let them die on your
The Won Behring method of immunization of
calves by vaccination to prevent tuDerculosis is
ceedingly dangerous to handle. Write Director
Patterson of the Maryland Experiment Station,
and he will send you the tuberculin.
Write President Sylvester, of the Maryland
Agricultural College, and he will send you liter
ture on bovine tuberculosis. or what is better,go
to college and take week or two course In vet
Urinary work, and you will find the time and
DR.. 8. s. Buckley, the college veterinarian,
could not spare the time from his class work to
test all the milk COWS in our county, not to men
ton the rest of the State.