CONTACIOUS MAMMITIS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2563, 26 July 1909, Page 4

CONTACIOUS MAMMITIS.

INFECTED MILK.

It has been reported that a consumer in this district last week found traces of contagious mammitis in the milk ..pplied to him by a dairyman. The milk from a cow suffering from contagious mammitis is easily identified, 'for, according to Mr. J. A. Cilruth, late Chief Veterinarian, the milk is viscous, thick, and yellowish being more in the nature of pus—which in point of Tact, it is—than of milk, gradually it assumes a dirty brown tint, is more curdy, and, if the, material is aflowed to stand, one-fourth or twofifths settles as a dirty brownish yellow deposit, surrounded by a thin pale milky fluid. The infected milk is comparatively harmless to the human beiim, and rarely causes any trouble beyond, perhaps, sore throaty but as the Juilk is nevertheless diseased, the idea oi partaking of it is consequently repugnant to ln h speakSf io Mr W. Miller, I.ispector of Agriculture at Gishoine, a ‘‘Times” reporter learned that there was not very much mammitis among rhe herds in this district, and that a cow might be infected for a few days without the dairyman being aware of - fact The local dairymen, Mr. Miller stated, were generally very cautious in watching for any indications of an itbreak, but it was almost impossible to detect the disease at once, ibe way to test the milk was to strain it through fine muslin, and if found thick and curdy, to boil the milk well to kill the germs, and then destroy it. Jhe cos- lliould he isolated and treated by ■injecting a i per cent, solution of bornr*if* jjoid into the udtlei** The dtaeaso is readily contagious, and might! easily he conveyed by the hind or by the milking machine to the S of the herd. The disease can easily bo spread by carelessness on t.ie part of the dairy farmer,, and ms a-pre-caution the milk from each cow should be separately strained t^. roa f J I ' fo^” e musliit at least once a week. Unfortunately contagious mammitis is not a Scheduled disease, and the officers of the Agricultural Department are powerto enforce any preventive nrecautions. The disease is a serious one to the dairy farmer, and efforts have been made to have it put under the control of the dairy regulations At the present time a farmer might even sell an infected cow m the open saleyards, and so transplant the disease fr :m one herd to another. There is no law to prevent the transaction, hut happily such cases arerare_ among ■dairymen in the Poverty Bay district.