CO129-562-12 Dysentry epidemic- recommendation to enforce compulsory pasteurization of milk 7-6-1937 - 17-8-1937 — Page 53

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to be repaid to farmers by local authorities at the close of six months. Considerations similar to those set out in the preceding paragraphs have led us to recommend that local authorities themselves should be entitled to recover these repayments or at least a substantial part of them from the Ministry of Agriculture.

228. The loans to farmers for the purposes of eradication should be made on such terms that after making adequate allowance for possible bad debts, there should be no loss to the authority making or guaranteeing the loan. But if such a loss should occur, it should be appropriately divided between the local authority and the Exchequer.

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PART 4.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

(a) Principal conclusions.

229. We summarise our principal conclusions as follows :-

The present system of milk production and supply.

(1) The dairying industry is of great economic importance, and the reduction of disease on a considerable scale would be a material gain for the nation (paragraph 11).

(2) The milking life of a dairy cow is only half that which might be expected under ideal conditions, with the result that there is an annual loss to the nation of over three million pounds. Fifty-eight per cent. of the cows passing out of herds are disposed of on account of disease, and the loss of many of the remainder is indirectly attributable to disease. The four principal diseases are bovine tuberculosis, contagious abortion, mastitis and Johne's disease (paragraphs 12–18). (3) The proper feeding and care of dairy cattle are of the greatest importance, and Government should bring education to bear in this field. The chance that a cow will encounter infection depends on housing conditions, methods of management, and the extent to which cattle come into contact with animals from other herds. When cattle are bought into the herd, there is great risk of infection, especially when they pass through an open market. Herds and districts are specialised, to a greater or less extent, some in the production of milk and others in the rearing of young stock. This specialisation makes considerable movements of cattle inevitable (paragraphs 19-25).

(4) Milk reaches the consumer through a variety of channels. At one end of the scale there is the large concern in large towns that buys in bulk, and at the other the producer-retailer, selling direct to the consumer the milk that his own herd produces. Between these extremes there lie a number of intermediate types. The producer- retailer and the large distributor are in competition on the circum- ferences of the largest towns and throughout towns of large, but not the largest, size (paragraphs 26–28).

Cattle diseases.

(5) The incidence of bovine tuberculosis among cows is probably as high in Great Britain as anywhere else in the world. Cattle may be shown to be infected with it by their reactions to tests with tuberculin. At least 40 per cent. of cows are infected with it in such degree that they will react to the tuberculin test. Infected cattle, even at an early stage of disease, excrete tubercle bacilli in great numbers. Calves born from infected mothers are nearly always free from the

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