A Pure Milk Supply In view of the fundamental importance
of a pure milk supply, the Ministry of Agriculture in Northern Ireland has done well to carry out a prolonged test of Dr. Spahlinger's bovine anti-tuberculosis vaccine. The results would appear to justify it. Eleven calves were vac- cinated and seven were not. After six months all were inoculated with a lethal dose of tubercle. The eleven vaccinated animals, after five months, are alive and well ; of the seven unvaccinated all are dead but two. Further tests are needed, but it looks as if the vaccine rendered cows immune to tuberculosis. If that be so, we shall have a really effective means of securing pure and safe milk. Pasteurization, as Sir Henry Armstrong pointed out in Tuesday's Times, is at best a makeshift. It impairs the food value of the milk and it distracts attention from the main problem, which is to keep our cows free from tubercular disease.
Previous page
