The Silent Threat in Kennewick's Dairy Herds
Local farmers are being urged to test their livestock for tuberculosis as inspections reveal infection in unexpected places.
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There is hardly a farmer who would hesitate to apply the ax to a fruit tree infected with blight, yet some farmers refuse to permit state inspectors to apply the tuberculin test to their cows for fear of condemnation. While it seems a serious thing to slaughter a healthy-looking cow, the tubercular cow is to the herd what the blight-infected tree is to the orchard; the infection will inevitably spread. Beyond the financial loss, there is the vital matter of public health—an infected cow is a menace to human life. Tests conducted last week by R. J. Donahue have confirmed that tuberculosis exists in the dairy herds of this valley, even in two herds where its presence was not suspected. County Agriculturalist Lee M. Lampson urges every farmer who has not had their cows tested to make application at once.
“The infected tree is a menace only to its kind, while the infected cow is a menace to human life.”
Public health standards for livestock have come a long way since 1916, but the tension between individual property rights and community safety remains a central theme in Washington agricultural policy today. Managing disease in concentrated herds mirrors contemporary debates about animal welfare and industrial farming regulations.
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