140
X.—The village headman shall from time to time proclaim in the village that any cattle owner or other
person being bound to report the outbreak of contagious or infectious disease or death of cattle who neglects to
do so or who disobeys the order of the headman under any of the foregoing rules is liable to punishment under
section 9 of the Lower Burma Village Act
section 8 of the Upper Burma Village Regulation
The foll owing instructions, for the guidance of Deputy Commissioners
and other District Officers in districts to which the rules issued have been
applied, or may hereafter be applied by the Commissioner, are issued in Finan-
cial Commissioner's Circular No. 20 of 1895:—
I.—When a Township Officer or Sub-divisional Officer receives a report from a village headman under
Rule III, he shall immediately notify the fact to the Deputy Commissioner. If the report has been made to
the Township Officer, he shall notify the fact also to the Sub-divisional Officer.
II.—When the Deputy Commissioner or Sub-divisional Officer or Township Officer has reason to believe
that contagious or infectious disease has broken out in any village, he may issue a proclamation declaring such
village to be an infected village and cause it to be publicly notified in such village and the adjoining villages
and thereupon such village shall be deemed to be an infected village until the proclamation is annulled as
provided in Instruction III. A copy of the proclamation shall be sent to every Sub-divisional, Township, and
Police Office in the district.
III.—The Deputy Commissioner may at any time annul the proclamation referred to above and shall in
such case cause the fact of the annulment to be notified in the same way as the proclamation was notified.
IV.—In any infected village the Deputy Commissioner, or any officer authorized by him, may set apart
not less than 200 yards from the cattle-pens and grazing-grounds of the village and not less than 100 yards
from any watering-place used by the inhabitants of the village or their cattle, special places for diseased or
suspected cattle or, if the disease be rinderpest, for cattle which have been in the same herd with diseased
cattle, and may order the headman to cause to be constructed such sheds, enclosures, or other structures
as he may consider necessary for the proper isolation of diseased cattle.
V.—When a Deputy Commissioner, Township Officer, or Sub-divisional Officer has reason to believe that
any cattle or animals in any village are diseased, he may by written order appoint any officer not being a police
officer to examine the cattle or animals in such village. The officer appointed for this purpose should usually be
the Veterinary Assistant if there is one in the district.
These rules which have been very carefully framed to meet the require-
ments of the country to which they are to be applied will, if care and tact be
exercised in their application, be followed by excellent results. The Burmese
are proverbially fond of their cattle and are willing to undergo a good deal of
trouble and inconvenience to preserve them from contagious disease. So long
however as no rules could be enforced it was exceedingly difficult to obtain
unity of action in a village as one man, by carelessness or through laziness,
would neutralize the whole of the arrangements made by the rest of the vil-
lagers for the suppression of cattle plagues. This can now be prevented and
the work of the Veterinary Department will be rendered easier in consequence.
During the year under report the rules were applied to portions of 24 districts.
544. The following is the distribution of contagious diseases in Burmah for
the year under review:—
ARAKAN DIVISION.
Akyab.
Rinderpest.—The mortality in this district from contagious diseases has indeed been
terrible, namely, 47,787. Of these deaths, 42,309 were ascribed to cattle plague, which
disease for a great part of the year prevailed in its most virulent form all over the district,
sweeping off herd after herd.
The manner in which it spread from township to township may be seen from the follow-
ing statement:—
Township.
Kaladan
...
Minbya ...
Myohoung ...
Rathedaung ...
Akyab ...
Urrittaung ...
Pauktaw ...
Naaf ...
TOTAL ...
April.
...
...
1
3
...
...
...
...
4
May.
1,612
115
8
12
...
...
...
...
1,747
June.
5,670
255
193
23
...
...
...
...
6,141
July.
2,290
931
244
154
32
27
...
...
3,678
August.
1,593
1,811
3,219
549
197
28
...
...
7,397
September.
468
563
2,788
1,072
844
875
61
22
6,693
October.
179
1,123
2,506
1,076
128
611
165
10
5,798
November.
113
681
1,563
165
439
1,535
3
112
4,611
December.
19
263
433
99
34
834
92
185
1,959
January.
52
135
146
115
...
1,539
62
65
2,114
February.
6
191
111
175
...
259
255
72
1,069
March.
14
39
35
120
...
674
172
44
1,098
Total.
12,016
6,107
11,247
3,563
1,674
6,382
810
510
42,309