28
Commissariat mules working between Bareilly and Ranikhet.
On the 6th October 1894, ninety-six Government transport mules left Bareilly for Kathgodam,
consisting of forty-eight pack and forty-eight draft animals. The distance between Bareilly and
Kathgodam is sixty-six miles, and was completed in six marches. The animals, before leaving for the
journey, presented a healthy appearance. At the second halting place, Danranian, two marches from
Bareilly, one mule died ; at the third stage, four; at the fifth, one; and one at the sixth. On the arrival
of the animals at Kathgodam, Veterinary-Captain E. Taylor was ordered from Lucknow to report upon
the outbreak. He found the disease to be Surra, and shot four animals, and eleven died. Twenty
animals were despatched to Naini Tal, and these returned to Bareilly without showing any signs of
disease. Of the remainder, eleven were sent back to head-quarters, and the rest were taken to
Ranikhet, viâ Bhowali, where one succumbed, and eleven were destroyed between the17th and 23rd
October, and one animal succumbed at Bumsaon on the return journey to Kathgodam.
During the monsoon of 1894 very heavy rain fell, in all some 163 inches at Naini Tal and a trifle
less at Kathgodam. The death-rate amongst the horses of the Tonga service was sixty-three out of a
total of 128 or 49.22 per cent. It is needless to mention that the animals which left Bareilly on the 6th
October apparently in good health, had Surra amongst them previous to starting on the march, for, one
died at the second halting place and four at the third. It is a well known experimental fact that if a
large quantity of soiled blood containing 300,000 Surra organisms in each one c.cm. be subcutaneously
injected into a healthy horse, the parasite will not be detected in the circulation of the inoculated animal
until the 4th to the 6th day, and, with the exception of the usual symptoms of fever, no other signs of
Surra will be detected for some days, unless a few petechiæ invade the conjunctival membranes. When
the Surra hæmatozoon was given in water to a healthy horse, the time occupied between the last
administration and the appearance of the organism in the blood was seventy-five days (vide Surra
Report, Vol. I, Horse No. XX).
Therefore the animals which left Bareilly in apparently good health must have contracted Surra
at least several weeks before starting on their march to Kathgodam.
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
AHMEDABAD and BARODA, &c., DISTRICTS.
In 1893, a large number of horses and donkeys died all over these districts. The city of
Ahmedabad appears to have been spared this visitation, and also Dhandhuka, but it swept over all the
rest of the district and the Gáikwári country to the north. A Resolution of Government postponed the
Horse Show at Ahmedabad for two years.
It is not known whether Surra occurred in 1892, but probably it did. There is no doubt, however,
that the excessive rainfall of 1893, the bulk of which fell during the month of July, in each year, was
answerable for the disease appearing at the end of September, as the hæmatozoon thrives in a wet, warm
and muggy climate. On reference to Vol. I it will be seen that Horse No. XX contracted the disease
seventy-five days after imbibing the Surra hæmatozoon in water.
TABLE V.
Showing the Total and Mean Rainfall from 1889 to 1893 inclusive, and the Total Rainfall
during the monsoon months of 1894, June to October.
Districts.
Ahmedabad ...
Viramgám ...
Dhandhuka ...
Dholka
Barbda
Deesa
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
1889.
Inches.
24.89
21.67
27.07
34.11
45.88
...
1890.
Inches.
22.75
25 79
12.20
30.83
38.23
14.68
1891.
Inches.
25 59
34.79
23.13
25.95
29.50
13.24
1892.
Inches.
51.18
55.06
36.97
49.70
37.06
41.75
1893.
Inches.
43.75
35.58
26.26
35.51
44.62
49.60
Mean for
five years,
1889—1893.
Inches.
33.63
34.58
25.12
35.22
39.05
29.81
1894, June
to October
inclusive.
Inches.
51.33
39.63
57.88
45.74
64.01
21.66
1894—A very severe and widespread outbreak of Surra (Zerbag) involving an area of some 400
square miles, and occasioning the loss of thousands of animals, was investigated by Veterinary-Lieutenant
Axe in the Gujarát, Ahmedabad, Baroda and surrounding districts with special reference to the move-
ments of Batteries of Artillery. The disease affected horses, ponies, camels and donkeys, nearly every