"The tubercular cow must go": business, politics, and Winnipeg's milk supply, 1894-1922.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the Winnipeg health department's campaign to eliminate tuberculosis in dairy herds supplying milk to the city. It examines the complexity of creating dairy policies at a time when there was no consensus about the role that Mycobacterium bovis played in the etiology of tuberculosis in humans, and when dairy producers and consumers often resisted regulations that increased their costs. The article argues that the scientific debates about the regulation of the city's milk supply enabled physicians and veterinarians to enlarge their professional practices; that the benefits and costs of the dairy policies were not equally distributed; and that Winnipeg's milk supply remained vulnerable to both deliberate and accidental contamination throughout this period.