By John Green
This is part two of a three part series about a small republic in Siberia called Tuva. In the first episode you learned how Jerry Brenner (Lambertville Club) and John Green (Somerset Hills Club) returned to Tuva with donations to help an orphanage for children suffering from psycho-neurological disorders. To shorten the story, they were able to provide the orphanage with a commercial grade freezer, 320 sets of bedding linen, 100 laying chickens and 10 cows. But that wasn't all. When finished with the orphanage they still had money left so they looked for another good place to spend it. They found a facility for mentally and neurologically impaired adults and were able to help them with 16 milk goats, 200 chickens, 200 pairs of rubber "all weather" boots for working outside and seeds for their vegetable garden. When there was still money left, the pair arranged for the orphanage playground to be repaired and given a thick coating of sand to make falls less painful. That surpassed all their goals and made their trip an unqualified success! Or, was it?
Sometime in the fall of last year the pair got the bright idea to conduct a study from some 9,000 miles away. They wanted something to help convince farmers to use iodized salt for their animals. The idea was to find two similar farms and compare their "productivity" or the average babies per eligible mother. One of the farms got plain salt while the other got iodized salt. At the same time it was decided to analyze samples of milk to determine iodine levels and show milk as a good source of iodine. Finally, for very little more money, it was decided to analyze samples of wool to see if iodine improved its quality.
None of the study work that was proposed was cutting edge research. All of these things have been done before and our heroes had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Still, there was an element of chance so the study was funded from their pockets. Their contact in Tuva found two farms willing to participate for $100 each and all the salt their animals could eat. The study was launched!
What sounded so simple turned into a headache from the beginning. To begin with, the Ministry of Agriculture couldn't get the iodine dosage right in the salt blocks. That caused delays in getting salt to the animals and the problem was never resolved. Iodine dosage was supposed to be 40µg/Kg and the lowest it ever got was 120µg/Kg - three times the recommended level! The study was almost called off but both farmers agreed to continue and watch their stock carefully for signs of illness. They probably risked their animals for the $100 and the free salt.
While the productivity study continued it was decided to stop the milk analysis and the wool analysis. Because of the high levels of iodine those parts of the study were considered outside any reasonable limits. Since you have stuck around so long I will tell you the study was completed and I will show you the results. Following is what was found:
| PRODUCTIVITY | CONTROL | TEST | CHANGE |
| AVERAGE CALVES/COW | .68 | .80 | +17.6% |
| AVERAGE LAMBS/EWE | .50 | .78 | +56 % |
| AVERAGE KIDS/DOE | .43 | 1.00 | +132 % |
| AVG. CHILD/ELIG. MOTHER | .51 | .85 | +67 % |
Productivity increases in the range of 50% have been recorded in iodine studies done in China so our two Kiwanians weren't shocked by the incredible results. Still, the question is, are the results so good they won't be believed? Brenner and Green are already making plans to expand the study and conduct it again over this winter. There are enough question marks that they are curious. Also, there is the possibility the study might convince some farmers to use iodized salt. Should that happen, a lot of people would get small doses of iodine they never would have gotten otherwise. Stay tuned - we will bring you all the latest results!
