Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-20
INFECTION OF COWS
Menace to Health From Tu-
bercuIosis Explained.
DR.. SCHROEDER'S PAPER
Suggests Law to Compel Pasteuriza-
ton of Dairy Products.
INQUIRY IS MADE NECESSARY
Disease Hard to Discover, Existing
Often in Animals Which Are
Apparently Healthy.
DR.. SCHROEDER'S PAPER
INQUIRY IS MADE NECESSARY

Apparently Healthy.
That tubercuIar infection of dairy cat
tie is the most serious condition facing
those interested In animal husbandry Is
the conclusion drawn by DR.. E. C.Schroe-
der of the Department of Agriculture,
in a paper that he has contributed to
the report OF the bureau of animal indus
try just issued
DR.. Schroeder says he has made spe-
cial study of tuberculosis in dairy cattle
for many years, and he thinks it con-
servative estimate to say that % per
cent of the COWS in the United States are
infected with tuberculosis, and that the
disease is present to some extent in 30
per cent of the dairy herds of the coun-
try. He says that these figures are at
the best estimates. but that in Europe.
where statistics have been more care
fully kept for a longer period. they show
that 10 per cent of the cattle are in
fected.
Remedy Proposed.
Owing to the great extent of the dis
ease. he says, il WILL of course, be i'm
possible to thoroughly eliminate all the
infected cattle for a long time to come.
but that, failing this, there should be
rigidly enforced law compelling the
pasturizaton of all dairy products that
do not come from herds shown positively
10 be free of tuberculosis.
The paper as a whole is not a cheering
piece of literature. 1t Is filed with pic
lures of tubercular tissue taken from
cows examined and with plates showing
tuhSrCJidr vari0uS
forms as taken from human beings and
mammals and the changes in form that
the bacillus undergoes in the body of its
different hosts.
The most startling pictures. however,
are photographs of many dangerously
tuberculous cows that show no outward
sign of the disease, but look like healthy
animals. Thus, DR. Schroeder says, the
tuberculin test, and this is infalible.
Menace to Health.
In discussing the general subject of
tubercular infection the author says thu.
use of .uncean dairy products ranks next
to human infection as a matter of dam
ger to public health. 1t is the more Sc
rious becauses the use of dairy products
is almost universal and necessary. DR..
Schroeder says:
Under the conditions of our present
civilization the dairy cow fills a unique
place, Her living body is the source of
the most important of all human foods,
and she has become an essential factor in
our modern institutions. Remove her
and either a substitute must be found or
many thousands of young children must
die of starvation. The woman who can
feed her child al her own breast till Ii is
old enough to do without milk is nearer
the exception than the rule, SO that the
cow or some other milk-producing animal
Of no ;lf,l,
the purpose of human foster mother.
Careful Inquiry Imperative.
AFTER children have passed the period
during which milk is requisite article of
food most of them continue it's use as
beverage and add butter to tAeir diet as
second product from the COW. Later on
cream and cheese are added, and the use
of milk to some extent a beverage, and
of cream, butter and cheese as regular,
current articles of food is continued to the
end of life. Hence, even If we are not
greatly Influenced by the idea that it is
disgusting and barbarous to eat SUBJ
stances that are obtained from the living
bodies of diseased cows, we must feel 1t is
important to make a careful inquiry re-
garding the transmissibility to ourselves,
through the use of dairy products, of the
commoneSt disease with which dairy cows
are affected. The need for this inquiry is
emphasized by the knowledge that the
commonest and most important disease of
cows is also the commonest and most i'm
portant disease of mankind, and by the
fact that, though the disease in question
tuberculosis-is one of the few infectious
diseases TO which widely different species
of animals are susceptible. its commonest
victims are persons and dairy cows.
The indispensable cause of tuberculosis
is the multiplication Of tubercle bacilli
in the animal body. As persons and
dairy cows are the commonest subjects
t1thn yha1r leo fIa
monest sources from which tubercle bacil-
Ii emanate, and as the exposure of per-
sons to persons, through the ordinary
routine OF life. and the exposure of per-
sons to dairy cows, through the lifelong
use OF dairy products, are commoner and
more direct and intimate than the ex-
posture OF persons to other possible
source OF tuberculous infection, we may
conclude that the two most important
sources of tubercle bacilli, against which
public health must seek to defend itself.
are tuberculous persons and tuberculous
dairy cows.
probably the more important but only
little can be said about 1t here, as the
latter is the subject of this article and
the little that is permissible must be
limited to the infection of dairy products
when they are exposed to tuberculous
or consumptive persons.
Observance of Precautions.
Persons affected with tuberculosis of
the respiratory passages. lungs. thdoat,
etc, e1pel tubercle bacilli with their
sputum and with the particles of fuid
sprayed from their mouths and noses dur
ing accelerated exploratory acts. Such
persons are regarded as not necessarily
dangerous to public health when they
observe number of simple precautions
relative to the disposal of the infectious
material which they expel from their
bodies, but they cannot keep their envir-
onment sufficiently free from tubercle
bacilli to make it safe place for the
exposure of food that Is to be eaten by
others. Dairy products are usually eaten
in a raw state; that is without previous
exposure to germicidal process like
cooking. and hence It is especially desir-
able that they should not be handled by
nor be exposed in the environment OF tu-
berculous persons.
The expulsion of tubercle bacilli by
those who are affected with tuberculosis
and the mode of its occurrence Justify
the enforcement of health regulations that
will exclude all tuberculous persons from
serving in occupations such as food ven
derS. cooks, walters, mixers creamery
cmnloYes, 8uttermakers etc
Tuberculosis, unfortunately, is infec-