The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-09-23
Should Milk Supply
of City be Tested?

The tuberculous COW transmits her
This is asserted by local health au-
thorities. They point 10 an increas-
ing fund OF evidence to substsntiate
their claims The local health de-
partment furnishes statistics 10 show
that this constitutes a grave peril to
the city while the dairy herds are
INFESTED
In New England where herds long
have been inbred the percentage OF
tuberculosis is high, often reaching Is
to 20 percent. In the Middle West,
where the dairy business is of more
recent establishment the proportion
averages s percent OF the 450 cows
supplying Richmond % will be tuber-
culous, The state department of
Agriculture reports 5722 milk cows in
Wayne county; according TO the aver
age this means 343 infected.
All these authorities agree that bo-
vine tuberculosis is infectious TO man.
According TO one report of the United
States Department Of Animal Industry
7 percent. of all tuberculosis is trace
able to the COW. The bovine bacillus
is more virilent than the human type.
Diseased Cow Dangerous
Afer an animal has been infected
three years she becomes an active
agent for spreading the disease. Bac-
ILL are expelled through her nostrils
and fill the air in her neighborhood
which may later be inhaled by other
animals. They are contained in the
slobber which she rubs on her manger
or against posts and fences and
scatters on the grass. In 40 percent.
of cases her manure is alive with bac-
I'LL and is one of the most common
means of scattering the germs.
Chickens, hogs, horses, and all farm
animals except possibly sheep, be-
come contaminated in that way. In
advanced cases bacilli swarm through
the muscles and are sometimes ex-
PEELED through break in the skin. In
Is percent. of all cases, according to
Prof Salmon, germs are expelled with
the milk.
Two percent. of infected cows have
tuberculous udders. According to
Harvard's hygiene expert, Prof. Ros-
enau. one gill of milk drawn through
suoh an udder contains an enormous
dose of bacilli" If percent. of the
cows furnishing Rishmonds milk sup
ply are thus infected nine are daily
furnishing the city with enormous
doses"
J. F. Anderson of the Marine Hos
pital Service, tested 104 samples of
milk taken from Washington, D. c..
dairies; eleven samples were found
infected. Other federal authorities
estimate that of all tuberculous cows
40 percent. yield infected milk. On
this basis local authorities estimate
that at least eleven cows are yielding
tuberculous milk to the local market.
Much Milk Bad.
Reports published by European
countries show dairy samples of milk
infected all the way from percent. to
percent. 1t is claimed that the de-
gree of infection depends largely on
local circumstances and control. OF
144 samples examined in Chicago in
1910, 10.5 percent. were infected; of
% samples taken in Washington in
same year. 6.72 percent; of 107 an
alyzed in New York City, 16 percent.
Various tests made over the country
as a whole average about percent. of
dairy milk infected. According to
this estimate local authorities have
calculated that lightweight gallons of
infected milk are used in the city
daily.
Each infected COW in a herd, it is
said, may contaminate all the milk of
the herd.
e. c. Schroeder of the United States
Department of Health has made
special Investigations in the infect
iousness of butter. He asserts that
the bacilli rise to the top with cream
or sink to the bottom with sediment !;
on account of this, he says, butter is
probably ten times more contami-
mated than milk.
Danger in Butter.
Measure for measure infected but
ter is greater tuberculosis danger,
he says, than milk. 1t is difficult
to imagine a better environment for
bacilli not actively associated with
tuberculosis LESSONS than butter af
fords. In sailed butter germs are
active ninety-nine days or over. Sail
is only slight preventive. The ex
animation of sediment taken from
cream separators of public creameries
! throughout the country has demon
strated the presence of tubercle bac
| ILL is about one-fourth of samples. II
| is not only question of the exposure
of children alone Int also of adults