Tuberculose e leite: elementos para a história de uma polêmica

Can human beings get tuberculosis from the milk taken from cows infected with tuberculosis? Are the diagnosis and control of cattle tuberculosis effective for the protection of human populations? Questions such as these were the main concern of doctors from Sao Paulo at the beginning of the twentieth century. The present study tried to recover elements from the polemic that took place in Sao Paulo, in order to encourage the coming up of complementary facts about such matter. The article presents some indicators of confronting positions: on one hand, the goal of intensifying the control of tuberculosis among the cattle; on the other hand, the attempt not to bring up any loss to national cattle raisers through the demand of additional precaution measures, which would affect the production and distribution of their products. Medical publications kept records of the interventions, which have allowed the author to identify the first position as the stronger one, which has brought up relevant consequences for the sanitary food control.