CO129-562-12 Dysentry epidemic- recommendation to enforce compulsory pasteurization of milk 7-6-1937 - 17-8-1937 — Page 41

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the more easily because, as a result of the various measures which we have proposed for securing a safer milk supply, the consumption of milk in liquid form should show considerable expansion, to the benefit of all sections of the industry. It should not rest with the marketing boards themselves to determine whether or not this levy should be raised, or at what rate the bonus should be paid. As the strength of the inducement which this bonus would afford to owners. who have not yet cleaned up their herds depends on an assurance that it will be continued long enough after they have eradicated tuber- culosis for them to recoup the cost of doing so, it is essential that there should be no ground for fearing that the policy might be reversed. We therefore consider that the collection of this levy should be made a statutory obligation of the present Milk Marketing Boards or of any organisation which may replace them, and that the rate of the bonus to be paid should be fixed by the government.

168. The present system of grading milk is based upon two factors, first, safety, and secondly, cleanliness or freedom from organisms likely to cause souring. A higher standard of cleanliness is required for safe raw milk than for ungraded milk. But cleanliness is within the reach of every farmer, and should be insisted on univer- sally. We consequently recommend (paragraph 206 below) that all milk sold for liquid consumption, whether it is subsequently to be pasteurised or not, should reach a certain standard of cleanliness on the farm. If this is secured, grading can be confined to milk which is safe, either because it has been produced in tuberculosis-free herds or because it has been pasteurised. In this way the inducement to produce tuberculosis-free milk would be increased. For the difference of price in favour of safer milk would remain, though the extra trouble of producing a milk of greater cleanliness would be common to all producers.

169. The way in which compulsory pasteurisation is introduced may profoundly influence the prospects of eradicating tuberculosis from dairy herds. If milk from tuberculosis-free herds need not be pasteurised, though milk from other herds, when sold in certain areas, must be pasteurised, the owner of a tuberculosis-free herd, if a producer-retailer near such areas, enjoys a permanent economic advantage. But if at the time when this change is introduced the costs of eradication are unduly high, as they would be to-day owing to the shortage of tuberculosis-free cattle, the organisation of milk production may be adjusted to the alternative of pasteurisation instead of to the alternative of eradication. It is for this reason that the measures which we have recommended, for the setting up. of a register of tuberculosis-free herds, should be put into operation. before producer-retailers are offered the choice between pasteurisation and the eradication of tuberculosis. At the same time, if the measures for promoting eradication are to be successful, it is necessary that it should be generally realised that the sale of unpasteurised milk from herds which are not free from tuberculosis