During WW II we kept a couple of cows, drank the raw milk, ate the butter and ice cream. No problem, but one tubercular cow in a herd of a hundred used to infect thousands before pasteurization. It used to be called the “white plague.” After the pasteurization laws, TB is not that common any more.
“TB is not that common any more.”
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Because they call it AIDS now.
Actually, TB is quite common in parts of the country where illegal immigration travels on foot, and their garbage tends to be very infectuous.
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“No problem, but one tubercular cow in a herd of a hundred used to infect thousands before pasteurization.”
That is another of the changes: it is ALL business and no personal care/interest anymore!
In order to make more money, many of these dairy farms started having more and more cows with less and less care for the cows, etc... It was ALL about the most amount of product which could be delivered to the market!
My uncle’s dairy had 475 cows. He had about 10 employees (not including me, my four siblings and his three kids). EVERY cow was checked about every three months. So every quarter they had all been inspected, treated and cared for. If any showed ANY signs of sickness, they were immediately moved out of production and either cared for or sold off.
Never had a single sickness that got into any of the milk. But, we cared for those cows better than we did for the dogs that helped herd them!
TB is back in vogue thanks to our importing third world carriers, both legal and illegal.
ICE no longer excludes visitors with diseases, particularly when they are politcally correct diseases such as AIDS.
But, on the bright side, we are highly successful at keeping people with more than 3 oz. of mouthwash off airlines!
I’d bet that the decrease in TB has less to do with pasteurization of milk than it does of careful watching of the herd and better hygiene standards.