Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 257, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1914 — LIVE STOCK [ARTICLE]

LIVE STOCK

• BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. Large Percentage of all Herds [lnfected with the Disease. A great many of our dairy farmers think that there are enough regulations concerning their business, but it is highly probable that further legislation in regard to milk will follow the statement Dr. V. A. Moore recently made in Ithaca that 72 per cent of all herds of cattle in the State are infected with tuberculosis. Dr. Moore is one of the staff of the New York State Veterinary College at Cornell, and consulting veterinarian to the State Agricultural Department. He believes that steps should be taken to probe the herds and eradicate the disease. During the last year the State Department tested cattle. Of this number 628 responded to the tuberculin test and were killed, The owners received for these condemned cows' a total of $6,819, which averages a little mor than $lO a head, the State law allowing the payment of forty per cent of the value of any animal killed by order of the State Veterinarian. This, it is claimed, is considered too small an amount by the farmers and often Induces them to cover up the condition of Infected animals. State Agricultural Commissioner Welting believes the owners should be paid a greater percentage, and that the’only safe way to eradicate the disease Is to kill off the Infected animals within a given period. To do this would require thousands or officials and an immense expenditure of money, but he is sure the State will eventually be forced to adopt the plan and will, in the end, be the better off for it. Discussing the question, Dr. Moore recently called attention to a very comnion error when he said: “You will see advertisements appear drink only Pasteurized or sterilized milk and avoid disease germs. Now the fact is that tuberculosis germs can not be killed under 210 degrees Fahrenheit. To heat milk to that temperature would change it to a curd like cheese. Raw milk is the natural food and the supply should be protected by the State at any cost.”