CO129-562-12 Dysentry epidemic- recommendation to enforce compulsory pasteurization of milk 7-6-1937 - 17-8-1937 — Page 40

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problems were not adequately solved; but there are now plants on the market capable of giving the desired results, if scrupulously used. We have not, however, considered it part of our task to examine their technical merits.

VII. THE INTER-RELATION OF THE VARIOUS POLICIES ADVOCATED.

164. The considerations which we have hitherto advanced lead us to make a number of recommendations for the better control of cattle diseases and for the improvement of the milk supply. These we may express as follows:—

(i) The veterinary service should be expanded and charged with the duties of carrying out periodical clinical examinations of dairy herds, and of putting into effect measures for the better control of all, and the elimination of some, of the diseases among dairy cattle.

(ii) The eradication of bovine tuberculosis should be promoted by securing to owners of tuberculosis-free herds a higher price for their milk than that obtained by other owners; by setting up a register of herds free from tuberculosis, by setting up markets (or parts of markets) confined to the sale of tuberculosis-free animals from such herds, by providing free technical advice to farmers making genuine attempts to free their herds from tuberculosis and by refunding to such farmers, provided they continue to carry out this advice conscientiously, the costs of tests with tuberculin necessary for the purpose of eradication. (iii) The heat-treatment of milk, except pasteurisation or sterili-

sation, in licensed plants should be prohibited forthwith. Milk bulked in any considerable quantity should be required to be pasteurised or sterilised after bulking. (iv) Large municipalities should be given the right to require that after two years' notice all milk (except sterilised milk) sold within their boundaries which is not derived from herds free from tuberculosis shall be pasteurised, but the power to exercise this right should be deferred for three years in order that the measures recommended for the eradication of tuberculosis may have had sufficient effect in breeding areas to provide a supply of tuberculosis-free cattle, and thus to make the policy of eradication possible to producer-retailers near such towns.

165. We must emphasise the interdependence of these proposals. The expansion of the veterinary service with the duties which we have assigned to it will involve considerable fresh expenditure. But we believe that this expenditure is fully justified in view of the objects which it will serve. We have recommended an expansion of the veterinary service not so much for its immediate benefit to public

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health but as a part of a wider programme aiming at the complete eradication of bovine tuberculosis and the reduction of other diseases. We consider that without such an expansion a programme of eradication must fail, but that with its support and as a result of the educative influence which it would exert, it would effect its object.

166. We have not hitherto entered into the question of the inducements to be offered to farmers to eradicate tuberculosis and the financial assistance to be afforded to them in the process. There has been great divergence in the policies adopted by other countries in this respect. In the United States and in Canada compensation has been paid on a high scale for tuberculous cattle slaughtered; in other countries, notably in Denmark, important results have been achieved without any serious expenditure of public funds. In Great Britain the heavy incidence of the disease and the importance of economy in public expenditure rule out the possibility of high compensation for cattle slaughtered in the course of eradication. It is therefore all the more important that substantial inducements should be offered to farmers to incur the costs of eradication, which at the outset may be heavy. The simplest and most effective inducement is to secure for the owner of a tuberculosis-free herd a higher net return for the milk which he sells than is obtained by the owners of other herds. In part we believe that this may be done by altering the rules governing the grading and pasteurisation of milk so as to give a greater advantage to the herd which is free from tuberculosis, and these alterations are discussed in paragraphs 168 and 169. But these alterations would only influence particular groups of farmers and would not by themselves cause farmers to volunteer to undertake eradication in such numbers as to produce a material reduction of disease within a reasonable period.

167. We have therefore considered whether an inducement of a more general character could be offered and what form it should take. A higher return might be secured to the producer of tuberculosis-free milk by the payment of a bonus either directly from the Exchequer or from a levy on the milk industry as a whole. But the former of these alternatives is open to insuperable objection, for apart from the equity of calling upon the general taxpayer to subsidise the industry for such a purpose, a direct grant from public funds, though the total would be small at the outset, would, if it achieved its purpose of inducing farmers generally to eradicate, reach a sum which it would be quite impossible to expect the Exchequer to find. We are, therefore, left with the other alternative, under which a bonus would be provided for milk from non-tuberculous herds, irrespective of the use to which it is put, from the proceeds of a levy on all milk. The Milk Marketing Boards could supply the machinery through which this levy could be raised, whether it was imposed in the first instance on producers or distributors or in part upon both, though their existing powers would require to be modified in order to bring graded milks within their purview. This levy would be borne

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