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71
Milk and Tuberculosis
Almost up to the time of the last war one to two per cent. of cows
in the British Isles suffered from tuberculous udders, and forty per cent.
of the cows reacted to the tuberculin test. Five to fifteen per cent. of
samples of raw milk were found to be infected with living tubercle bacilli
and the same organisms could be recovered from cream, butter and cheese.
It was largely the harm done to children by the consumption of this
infected milk that encouraged the growing practice of heat treatment of
milk, a step which rendered the milk safe, not only from the risk of
conveying tuberculosis but also the other milk-borne diseases such as
undulant fever, epidemic sore throat and scarlet fever. While the Tuberculosis
Order encouraged the slaughter of diseased animals, this of itself
could bring about improvement only very slowly. An alternative line of
action was the active immunisation of cattle. In some places abroad,
reliance was placed on the building up of tuberculin-free herds. The first
step on these lines in this country was the plan to build up accredited
individual herds which were subjected to frequent tuberculin tests, with
the removal from the herds of positive reactors. Following the building
up of accredited herds would be the formation of accredited areas. These
arrangements gave way to those of attested herds, these to be developed
later into eradication areas and these in turn to Attested Areas. With
the declaration of an Attested Area, the control by licence of cattle moving
within the area is relaxed, but prohibition of movement of cattle into the
area except under licence continues.
The marked improvement in the position in recent years is indicated
by there being at the end of 1957 7½ million cattle in attested herds and
in Attested Areas in Great Britain as against 3.4 million five years ago
and 1.1 million ten years ago. Over three-quarters of the cattle in the
country are now attested. The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food intends to extend the free tuberculin-testing of cattle in the remaining
parts of the country, and on March 31st, 1961, to declare the two final
areas of England and Wales as Tuberculosis Eradication Areas. There
are good prospects that the whole of Great Britain will be an attested
area by 1961. This is an extraordinary change from the very gloomy
outlook shortly before the war.
The incidence of non-pulmonary tuberculosis in children had already
fallen markedly before this. Improvement had come about principally
because of the growing practice of the heat treatment of milk; and even
though still greater success is achieved in eradicating tuberculosis from
cows, this heat treatment will still be necessary to render the milk safe,
out apart from other considerations, this progress in eradicating bovine
tuberculosis is to be welcomed if only because the supervision necessary
to ensure the maintenance of this satisfactory state should help to keep
down other diseases of cattle communicable to man.
(B) MEAT
Meat Inspection
Legislation as to Slaughterhouses : In May 1956 a White Paper
(Cmd. 9761) was published which indicated that minimum standards
would be prescribed for the construction, layout and equipment of