Proceedings of the Hon'ble the Chief Commissioner and Agent to the Governor-General, North-West Frontier
Province, No. 1017-Rev.., dated 7th October 1921.
READ:—
Report on the Working of the Civil Veterinary Department for the year ending 31st
March 1921.
REMARKS.—Mr. J. S. Garewal was in charge of the Department
throughout the year. He toured for 103 days and inspected nearly all the
Hospitals and Tonga Lines in the Province. He also attended the Horse and
Cattle Fairs held during the year and acted as a member of the Judging Com-
mittee.
2. The strength of the Veterinary staff is now complete and is be-
lieved to be adequate to the immediate needs of the Department. The revision
of pay carried out last year has unfortunately not satisfied the Department owing
to the higher scale that has since been introduced in the Punjab. A further
revision is under the consideration of the Administration.
3. Owing to the dryness of the season the year was a very healthy one for
cattle. Altogether there were 1,067 deaths out of a total number of 4,032 cases
of contagious disease reported as compared with 3,087 deaths out of 30,090
cases in the previous year. Of equine diseases surra was prevalent in the
Kurram and Malakand Agencies especially in the former and was responsible
for nearly two-thirds of the total fatal cases. Amongst bovines 940 cases
proved fatal out of 3,278 cases reported as against 2,680 out of 23,642 in the
last year. As in the preceding year, rinderpest was again rife throughout the
Province and accounted for 640 deaths out of the total number of 940 cases
during the year. Hæmorrhagic Septicæmia was responsible for 222 deaths
out of 307 cases. The proportionately high mortality is no doubt due as stated in
the report to the poor condition of the animals owing to the shortage of fodder.
The number of inoculations performed during the year was considerably less
than the previous year, viz. 11,749 as compared with 32,065. This reduction is
not due to the reluctance of the people to produce their animals for inocula-
tion or to any fault of the Department but to the loss of Hæmorrhagic Septicæ-
mia vaccine in transit. The readiness of the people to report the disease
and agree to inoculation as reported by the Superintendent is a satisfactory
feature and the practical demonstrations and lectures delivered in the villages
have no doubt contributed largely to the growing confidence of the people in the
Department and its methods. The Superintendent again remarks on the
unpunctuality of Patwaris in reporting outbreaks of contagious diseases and the
Chief Commissioner hopes that District Officers will pay special attention to
this matter.
4. The number of Veterinary Hospitals was 19 in the year under review
as compared with 20 in the preceding year. The number of animals treated in
these institutions, however, increased to 47,060 as against 44,140 in the
previous year. Medicine was supplied in 4,169 cases which could not be brought to
hospitals as compared with 5,849 cases in the previous year. Veterinary Assist-
ants on tour visited 1,720 villages and treated 8,412 animals as against 25,703
animals treated in the previous year. This is a fair indication that the year
under report was practically a good one from the point of view of health. The
number of castrations performed during the year increased from 2,283 to 3,285.
5. The number of horse and donkey stallions at the close of the year
was 16 and 18 respectively or 6 horse stallions and 2 donkey stallions below
the sanctioned strength. This deficiency has probably now been remedied, and
was due to unavoidable causes: 14 horse, 4 pony and 19 donkey stallions were
actually employed at stud and the total number of mares covered was 1,885 as
compared with 1,747 in the previous year.
6. The Department is making steady progress in the improvement of
cattle-breeding. There are now 54 stud bulls in the Province—an increase of
nearly 19 per cent. on the figures for last year. It is satisfactory to note that