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Tuberculosis as usual heads the list of diseases rendering carcases or portions of
carcases unfit for human food, 2*3 per cent, of cattle, and *03 per cent, of calves being
found affected with this disease.
Public Health Officers often state that the reason for so few cases of tubercular
disease being found in private slaughterhouses is, " the butchers kill only the best
homefed oxen in which there is little or no disease."
Our experience does not agree with that statment, for of 267 cattle found affected
with tuberculosis, 187 were fat, healthy looking homebred oxen, 5 were bulls, and 75
were cows.
In oxen, the disease was generally found confined to one or two organs, e.g., head,
lungs, or liver ; common lesions being retropharyngeal glands and lungs, or
retropharyngeal glands and mesenteric glands.
As regards sheep, the most common cause for destruction was parasitic infection
accompanied by hydraemia, a condition causing breeders and veterinary surgeons a
considerable amount of anxiety at the present time.
The following table shows the number of diseased organs seized and destroyed, and
the cause for their destruction.