[Reports and Appendices] of the Irish Milk Commission, 1911.

  • Great Britain. [Royal] Commission on the Irish Milk Supply.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: [Reports and Appendices] of the Irish Milk Commission, 1911. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    840/1108 (page 30)
    knowledge of the produce of their cows. In the absence of organised effort, cow-, testing associations are difficult to start, and hence the best prospect of success lieJ in working through the Department of Agriculture and co-operative societies. Thus, in the creamery centres, the suppliers of a creamery can form themselves intcxl an Association. In non-creamery districts Associations might be formed under thej auspices of the local Agricultural Society. The Newry Agricultural Society, foi iits;?f ^n560 7-^ instance, proposed to form in connection with the Section for Dairy Cows in theii 11570. ' ^' Newry Show a number of milk-testing stations, where records may be checked by a local officer and re-checked by the Department's Inspector. ' (56) We will cite another instance of benefits directly due to cow-testing associ- ations. At a creamery in Cavan, where there was an association, a farmer told oneJ of our witnesses that in making up his returns for the previous year he had foundl that one cow had given him milk to the value of £12 and another to the value of| R. A. Anderson, ^nly £5. The farmer said that but for the testing association he would not have 1024. known which was the more profitable cow. PART II.—PURITY OF THE MILK SUPPLY. Contamination of Milk. (57) Milk is liable to contamination in all the stages of its production and! distribution, and even in the homes of the consumer. For instance, it may be drawnl from a diseased cow; it is liable to faecal contamination in the farmyard or by! contact with the dirty clothes or hands of the milker; it may be drawn into cansl washed with impure water, or not washed at all. Then in transit, it is exposed to-l the heat of the sun's rays and to the entrance of dust from the road or the railway! platform; in the railway van it may be stowed near unsavoury articles. Under the! lid of the tankard there may be a filthy cloth or newspaper, and a brass measuring-] strip in the can may harbour dirt. In the milkshop there are further possibilities-j of contamination if the receptacles be not constantly covered, as, for example, from! flies. In huxters' shops it is liable to receive a taint or odour from articles such asl paraffin oil, vegetables, etc., as well as pollution from the dirt of the shop; or itj may be that the vessels containing the milk are not clean. Sometimes the shopsj themselves and their surroundings are wholly unsuitable. During distributionj further opportunities of contamination occur. It may be that the milk is sold by[ the vendor in the street under circumstances which render it impossible to prevent dust getting into the milk. Dishonest servants may tamper with the milk as by l adding water from a polluted stream or ditch. Cases of infection have occurredl through contact of the milk with a typhoid carrier, or with persons who were in I the family or employment of a dairyman suffering from infectious disease. Finally! milk is liable to contamination in the home of the consumer in several of the ways-J already enumerated, e.g., by flies, by the use of dirty jugs, by proximity to article*! in the larder which give a taint to milk. Sometimes the larder is near the ashpit. We mention these possibilities to give force to the recommendations we shalll make to ensure the production and handling of milk in as cleanly a manner as isl compatible with commercial requirements. It may at once be said that much ofj the contamination is avoidable by ordinary care, and it is to the observance of| reasonable precautions that our suggestions are directed. Tuberculosis in Cattle. (59) Obviously it is of the first importance that wholesome milk must bej drawn from healthy cows. Milk from a tuberculous cow may not be dangerous, F but milk drawn from a cow with a tuberculous udder is .almost certain to contain I the germs of the disease. Tuberculous cows may be roughly divided into thr^ classes : (1) the cow with a tuberculous udder; (2) the cow whose udder is normaU but which is clinically tuberculosis; and (3) the cow whose udder is normal and which is apparently healthv. Of the first class any cow recognized to be sufferm^l from tuberculosis of the udder should at once be slaughtered, as provided by section[