Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-01-13
WISCONSIN LEADS IN
DISEASE-FREE CATTLE
Area Test Is Graduating Tuber.
culosis From The Dairy
Herds of The Leading
Dairy State

Wisconsin is far in the lead in the
fight against bovine tuberculosis carri-
ed on in a number of states by the
area method Three Badger counties
are credited with being 100 per cent
clean. Four more counties viii be
cleaned up within comparatively
short time
Testing in Bayfield, county has been
completed More than thirteen thou
sand head of cattle came under the
test. Less than half of 1 per cent of
this large number were sreactors, a
fact which speaks highly for the breed
ers of this county.
The first Wisconsin county to eradi-
cate bovine tuberculosis was Barron
A total of $1,000 head Of cattle were
shot" with tuberculin. This enormous
piece of work was the first area test
ing of any Importance to be completed
in America, and was finished in March
1919.
Not to be outdone by its neighbor,
Lincoln county put on a strenuous
campaign in May, 1921. Sixteen thou
sand cattle came under the veterin-
arians' needle during this time. En-
thusiasm among the breeders and
farmers of the county reached a high
pitch and competition was keen. Com
munities appointed runners" who
went out and got the farmers lin line
so that when the veterinarians started.
work, they went right along as fast
as they could work.
Wisconsin has such an immense
campaign in progress against bovine
tuberculosis that no state can success
fully challenge her right to supremacy
in county testing. Retests have been
made this fall in the few herds in
which tuberculosis was discovered, in
an effort to keep the county records
clean.
Four more counties have testing
work well under way All cattle in
Waukesha county have been tested
with the exception of two or three
townships, now at work. In Douglas
county 1000 cattle have been tested
Oneida county has a tested list of
$500 cattle More than half of the
cattle in Door county have been test
ed. Washington island, part of Door
county off the tip Of the peninsula, has
long been famed as the Guernsey is
land of Holstein, and boasts of absol-
ute freedom from tuberculosis among
the hundreds Of pure-bred "black-and-
whites" that monopolize the cattle
kingdom in this isolated locality.
The idea of combating bovine
tuberculosis by cleaning up areas, es-
pecially counties, is an original Wis
consin plan. Back in 1917, O. H. Ella
son, state veterinarian, conceived the
idea of the value of the intradermal
method of applying the tuberculin test
and how it could be easily and quickly
used in testing by counties. Previous
to this the simultaneous test was in
vogue, and no work on concentrated
areas had been attempted.
Veterinarians were skepticsl, com
mittees looked askance, other states
were doubtful, the Badger legislature
had to be convinced, With a small
appropriation granted by the session
of 1917 as trial offer, the state vet
erinarian started the next March to
"show'em" by going into the heart of
dairyland, Waukesha county and
waging a mighty crusade against the
little germ of tuberculosis causing
thousands of dollars damages each
year.
After ten months of desperate fight
ing against odds, Waukesha county
was much cleaner, but still capable of