Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1914-04-03
Experiment with tuberculosis.

Experiment with tuberculosis.
The problems presented by the wide.
spread existence Of tuberculosis ir
dairy cattle are manifold. They bea,
on human experience in connection
with the hygiene of the milk-supply
which is assuredly a matter of no
small concern to all classes of society
The question of tuberculosis in cat
tie involves the economics of agricul-
ture to a far greater degree than
the uninitiated can appreciate; for
the disease has manifested itself so
widely that the hope of complete era
dication must be deferred for long
time, to say the least. Furthermore.
the outcome of the management of
tuberculous herds may point the way
for advantageous applications in the
field of human treatment or preven-
ton.
In view of the enormous practical
difficulties in the way Of the complete
eradication of tuberculosis in cattle
by the wholesale slaughter Of all an
imals known to be infected with tu-
berculosis, schemes for utilizing the
latter have been devised. The most
prominent of these is the system
whereby tuberculous cows are isolated
and used for breeding purposes, the
calves being removed from the moth
ers at the earliest moment and
brought up without further exposure
to the disease. This has been rem.
dered possible by the ffaYddiinst that such
Iyoung are regularly born in perfect
health, and entirely free from tuber-
culosis. The affected breeding cattle
in this way do not become an entire
economic loss. A ten-year investiga-
ton, carefully verified and supervised
by government officials, has just been
reported by Brooks in connection
with what is probably one of the most
valuable herds of Holstein- Friesian
cattle in the world.
The object was to produce herd of
Holstein cattle free from tuberculous
faint and yet endowed with all the
most valuable -characterist
possessed by this breed. Animals
were selected because of their desira-
bility, entirely independent of the
presence or absence of tuberculosis
The tuberculous animals greatly out
numbered the non-tuberculous. Three
hundred tuberculous animals were
studied. The existence OF tuberculosis
was determined by the administration
of treble the official dose of tuberculin
repeated in non-reacting animals
three times at intervals of six months
All animals reacting to either test
were removed at once to the trans
mission of infection from the tuber-
culous group to the healthy one. AT
birth the calves are Immediately taken
from the mother. Feelings are or
pasteurized milk collected indiscrim-
inately from sound and tuberculous
animals.
Of more than two hundred calves
born of the tuberculous herd, not one
has become tuberculous, although al
have been tested three times by mass
i've doses of tuberculin. These ami
mails are rather more resistant to tu
berculosis than animals born of non
tuberculous parents. No falling off il
type, in milk production of fertility il
present in these calves, no increase
in death-rate exists among them a!
compared with the offspring o.
healthy cattle, no falling off in value
takes place, and several of the mos
valuable cows and bulls in the worlC
are Of this ancestry. These facts, say
The Journal Of the American Medi
cal Association, remain constant ever
where at least three generations o
known tuberculous parentage exist.