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Wisconsin Dairymen's Association / Fortieth annual report of the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association : held at Beloit, Wis., November, 1911. Report of the proceedings, annual address of the president, and interesting essays and discussions relating to the dairy interests
(1912)
Hastings, E. G.
Tuberculin and its uses, pp. 97-106
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Page 105
WVisconsin Dairyymen's Association. Prof. Hastifigs: Conditions come in which you cannot understand. tested a herd recently where that same thing happened; the fellow swore he had not bought a cow, had not fed mixed skim milk. He may have gotten it through infection from the factory. You cannot always explain these things. A Member: Does the post-mortem always show that a cow has tuberculosis? Prof. Hastings: Of course the best men may be fooled. We killed a cow at a farmer's course two years ago that we asserted at that time had tuberculosis, and when we examined her in the laboratory we fcund she did not have it at all. She had lumpy jaw. A Member: Is any breed of cattle more susceptible to tuberculosis than another? Prof. Hastings: I don't think so. It is simply a case of the cattle being brought into a place where they acquire the infection. Beef men like to say that dairy cattle are more delicate, and more likely to get it, but they all get it when they are exposed. Mr. Glover: We would like to have Prof. Hastings state whether tuberculin in any way is injurious to animals. Prof. Hastings: Not in the quantities that are ever used in the tuberculin test; it surely is not. It surely is not to the healthy animal, nor to the tuberculous animal either. -If we would give a cow one hundred times the tuberculin that we do in the test, it is very liable to make the disease spread more rapidly, if she Is tubercular. Mr. Glover: It is not uncommon to hear that tuberculin causes tuberculosis. Prcf. Hastings: That is impossible, because the tuberculin does not contain any living germ of tuberculosis. It is not as likely to con- tain them as a globule of Rock river water, because we heat it up to the boiling point three or four hours; an instant is enough to destroy the tuberculin organism. Besides the boiling, we put in half a per cent of carbolic acid, and that is enough to destroy the tuberculin organism. Dead ones, like dead men, are pretty harmless. Judge Rosa: Tuberculin, then, is a by-product of bacteria, rather than the bacteria itself? Prof. Hastings: Yes. A Member: Isn't It like any disease, in the air? Prof. Hastings: No, you have to have infection. You can not have typhoid fever unless you get the organisms into your body. And it I3 the same thing with tubevculosis. A Member: It is very susceptible to being killed if exposed to air and sunlight, is it not? M- 105
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