The Invisible Killer in Your Milk: Seattle’s Health Officer Warns of Tuberculosis Cows
With consumption rates soaring and no dedicated veterinary inspector on staff, local officials admit the city is dangerously unprepared to stop diseased cattle from entering the food supply.
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DEATH LURKS IN MILK AND MEAT
Disposed of Daily to Consumers in the City of Seattle.
DECLARATION OF HEALTH OFFICER Says Tuberculosis Exists Among Cattle in the State of Washington
THAT GERMS ARE DISSEMINATED Urges the Appointment of a Veterinarian Who Shall Analyze Milk and Inspect All Cattle Sold in Seattle.
The latest data on milk and meat as the scourge of consumption have recently been officially recorded in most of the leading titles of the country, and boards of health are devoting much time and attention to plans for the suppression of the disease. One step taken in this direction has been to enact stringent ordinances prohibiting expectoration upon sidewalks, in street cars, and in public buildings, in order to prevent as far as possible the dissemination of the germs of the disease through the sputum of infected persons.
Investigations have been pursued to ascertain the other channels through which the scourge is spread, and the alarming discovery has been made that many of the milch cattle which are utilized in supplying milk and butter for large dairies and creameries are sadly afflicted with consumption, and their milk contains all of the deadly germs necessary for the spread of the disease. Medical men have now reached the conclusion that consumption is contracted in many cases by eating the partially cooked flesh of consumptive animals and by using the milk and butter from infected cattle.
In the stalls of city markets meat impregnated with the germs of tuberculosis is sold daily, and milk drawn from diseased cows is delivered at the homes of the people, to become the food of infants and the drink of adults.
In the City of Seattle today such infected milk is sold, and many of the citizens are being inoculated with the germs of a disease which will sooner or later carry them to their graves.
The Health Officer Sounds a Warning.
Dr. J. E. A. McKenney, the local health officer, is fully alive to this fact. Speaking of it today to a Star reporter, he said:
"There is urgent need for thorough inspection of milch cattle in this part of the country. All cattle and milk sold in this city should be carefully inspected for evidences of tuberculosis. The disease undoubtedly exists to a greater or less extent. I have only one deputy, Mr. Frazer, who at once sanitary inspector, milk inspector and slaughter house inspector. Of course he cannot attend to the inspection of all meat sold and determine whether or not the germs of tuberculosis are present. Such work would require the services of a specialist with suitable apparatus to make tests. That is the way the thing is done in Chicago and other cities where disease has been discovered in cattle.
'We have a state veterinary surgeon at Pullman, who very rarely comes to this city.' His appropriation of $100 allowed by the last legislature is utterly insufficient to do any effective work in the line of a general inspection of cattle.
An Expert Headed to Detect Tuberculosis.
"We need a skilled veterinarian in Seattle, who shall devote his whole time and energies to the inspection of meat brought here for sale and milk offered to consumers. His business should be to detect traces of tuberculosis in these food products. Such a man can be secured for $100 per month and would be of inestimable benefit to the citizens, by preventing to a large extent the spread of consumption."
Mr. C. R. Frazer was found at his office in the city hall engaged over his multifarious duties. "I have little time," said Mr. Frazer, "to give to the inspection of diseased cattle; furthermore, I have not the technical knowledge requisite to distinguish tubercular cattle. My duties as milk Inspector require that I shall analyze milk, but this is done merely to ascertain the amount of butter fat contained, and the presence of salicylic and formaldehyde preservatives and other preservatives. The milk of a cow afflicted with tuberculosis is, of course, highly dangerous, and the simplest way of preventing the sale of such milk would be to have a thorough examination of the dairy cattle by a veterinarian.
The test for tuberculosis is simple and rapid. The temperature and respiration of the animal are taken and an injection of tuberculin is given. After an interval the respiration and temperature are again taken. A decided variation stamps the animal as infected.
'I would also have a veterinary officer at the slaughterhouses whenever killing is in progress and as the animals are led into the pen such as give the least exterior evidence of the disease should be subjected to tests. There are at present about 1,000 beeves and 500 hogs slaughtered every month for consumption in Seattle. Among such a number it is certain that some are diseased; how many only the proper tests will show. It must be apparent to any thinking person that steps should be immediately taken to ward this tuberculosis menace to the lives and health of the people of Seattle.'
This 1903 warning highlights a century-old struggle with food safety infrastructure, where bureaucratic underfunding left consumers vulnerable to zoonotic diseases like bovine tuberculosis. The call for a dedicated veterinary inspector mirrors modern debates over public health funding and the necessity of rigorous oversight in local food supply chains.
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