TB in Britain's Milk

Only .5% of U.S. cattle are infected, but according to the best British estimates, 40% of Britain's 3,500,000 dairy cattle are infected with tuberculosis.

Though not all infected cows give infected milk and only about 6% of British farms ship milk Containing tubercle bacilli, all British bulk milk is suspect, because of much indiscriminate mixing. Dangerous milk occurs even in London (something so unheard of in any large U.S. city that recent Public Health Service reports on milk ordinance enforcement do not mention tuberculosis at all).

In October Britain's Medical Research Council Committee on Tuberculosis in Wartime blamed unsafe milk for part of the 45% rise in deaths of British children under ten from tuberculosis.

The high tuberculosis rate among Britain's milk cows cannot be simply solved. Public opinion and milk company pressure, which largely brought about regulation in the U.S. (where in 1917 only 5% of the cattle were infected), run into bigger obstacles in Britain. Immediate slaughter of infected animals would dangerously reduce the milk supply, make big demands on public funds for compensation,* bankrupt many dairymen, impair the fertility of Britain's fields by cutting down the manure supply.

*When farmers give up infected cows for slaughter, the Government pays them about -L-4, but the carcass belongs to the Government.

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