8
REPORT ON THE CIVIL VETERINARY DEPARTMENT (INCLUDING THE INSEIN
during the year, preventive inoculation was carried out in 107 villages
in the following districts, viz:—
Lower Burma.—Insein,
Tharrawaddy, Pegu, Prome, Toungoo,
Thayetmyo, and Thatôn.
Upper Burma.—Meiktila
Yamèthin, Magwe and Myitkyina.
The total number of cattle inoculated was 23,793, of which 13,507
were in Lower Burma and 10,286 in Upper Burma. Some 600
animals are reported to have died after inoculation, i.e. 2.52 per cent.
The percentage of deaths after inoculation was highest in the Upper
Chindwin, viz., 10.2 per cent. This may be accounted for by the fact
that the immunity conferred by the serum alone method is very short
not much more than ten days as a matter of fact so that unless an
animal is re-inoculated at the end of that time or suffers from a mild
attack of the disease—which converts the temporary into a permanent
immunity—soon after inoculation it is just as susceptible as an un-
inoculated animal. In my opinion inoculation should be made com-
pulsory and repeated every ten days until the outbreak ceases. At
present it is left to the cultivator to say whether he will have his
animals inoculated or not and one can readily understand the danger
in a virulent outbreak of disease such as occurred in both the districts
mentioned of having uninoculated cattle with inoculated animals
whose temporary immunity is of such short duration. On the other
hand what is known as the "serum simultaneous" method of inocu-
lation is not unattended with considerable risks and Veterinary
Officers are not justified in recommending its adoption unless Govern-
ment is prepared to compensate owners in the event of accident.
Both methods of inoculation are attended with certain disadvantages;
the whole question however is much too long and complicated to be
discussed in a report of this nature, but if Government could see its
way to the establishment of a Contagious Disease Fund somewhat on.
the lines of the Cattle Pleuro-Pneumonia Account for Great Britain
established under the Contagious Disease (Animals) Act of 1894 in
England, much more could be done in the way of prevention than is
done now.
As has been the case in former years inoculation work has been
much hindered not only by natural causes, e.g., wildness of the animals,
but by the unwillingness of the people to submit their animals to the
operation. In the Upper Chindwin the Deputy Commissioner placed
a Deputy Myoôk on special duty to go with inoculation parties who
were strangers to the district and help them by reassuring the
villagers of the benefits of inoculation and the large number of cattle
injected in that district was undoubtedly due to the efforts of this
officer. The experiment was also tried recently in Amherst district,
a special party under one of the Insein School Staff being sent down
and being attached to a specially detailed Deputy Myoôk. This
officer had either prejudiced himself or no faith in the efficacy of the
serum and the experiment was a failure.
In a certain number of districts serum injection is not only readily
consented to but asked for by the cattle owners, but these districts
have had considerable previous experience of serum injection acquired
under the guidance of particularly enthusiastic district officers.