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35
ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE RELATION BETWEEN
HUMAN AND ANIMAL TUBERCULOSIS.
Third Interim Report.
The Commission appointed on the 18th March, 1907, to inquire and report
with respect to the above, issued in January, 1909, a Third Interim Report
thereon, as from the result of further experiments they thought it advisable
to describe their results.
They point out that in the Second Interim Report they expressed the
opinion, as a result of their investigation, that a very considerable amount of
disease and loss of life, especially among infants and children, must be attributed
to the consumption of coin's milk containing tubercle bacilli.
They were undecided, however, what is the danger, if any, attaching to the
milk of tuberculous cows in which the udder presents no evidence of disease,
and they therefore made a number of experiments bearing on this point,
using for this purpose the milk of cows which had contracted the disease in a
natural way.
They found that the milk of cows obviously suffering from tuberculosis
contained tubercle bacilli, and this confirms the opinion expressed in the
Second Interim Report that the milk of such cows must be considered
dangerous to human beings.
It was also found, by experiments made with a view of obtaining
information regarding the excretion or discharge of tubercle bacilli in the
milk and faeces of tuberculous cattle, that the excrement of cows obviously
suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs or alimentary canal must be regarded
as much more dangerous than the matter discharged from the mouth and
nostrils. Further that, even in the case of cows with slight tuberculous
lesions, tubercle bacilli in small numbers are discharged in the fasces, while as
regards cows clinically tuberculous, the experiments show that the faeces
contain large numbers of living and virulent tubercle bacilli.
The presence, therefore, of tuberculous cows of this class in company with
healthy cows in the cowshed is distinctly dangerous, as some of the tubercle
bacilli which escape from their bodies in the excrement are almost certain to
find their way into the milk.
These experiments show that it is not sufficient for the farmer to ascertain
merely whether a cow is suffering from tuberculosis of the udder, but that no cow
can be considered as free from danger unless it passes the tuberculin test.
The Report illustrates the importance of seeing that cows are housed under
sanitary conditions, and properly groomed before milking; also that infected
cows should be kept apart from healthy animals.