3
15. In addition to this work he inspected often the Municipal
Hospital, Gowkhana and the Government Veterinary Hospital at head-
quarters and supervised the work of the Veterinary Assistant Surgeons
in charge. He also visited the Government Agricultural Farm at
Manipur several times and attended outbreaks of cattle disease in the
jurisdiction of the Itinerant Veterinary Assistant Surgeons at Jamalpur
and Mymensingh Sadar.
16. Mr. M. B. Menon continued to work as Veterinary Investiga-
tion Officer of this Province during the year. He was out on tour for
233 days and travelled 6,462 miles by rail, and 1,326 miles by road in
connection with his duties.
17. The year under review was a very busy year to him and
investigations on different diseases were carried out in the districts of
24-Parganas, Nadia, Jessore, Khulna (Satkhira), Pabna (Serajganj),
Rajshahi,a Malda, Murshidabad (Nabagram), Rangpur, Darjeeling
(Kalimpong), Dacca and Bankura.
18. Anti-rinderpest inoculation formed the main item of his work
this year. For some years past I have been desirous of examining new and
improved methods of prophylaxis both with regard to their efficacy and
practicability in the field. The serum alone method is relatively costly
and leaves much to be desired under the limitations restricting its
application in India. At first blood virus in conjunction with serum
was used in Rajshahi—the virus being obtained from a natural case.
In spite of careful blood examination of the producer, some of the
animals inoculated developed piroplasmosis and 2 died before treatment
could be applied and 4 recovered as a result of treatment. This method
was therefore discarded as impracticable for an ordinary Veterinary
Assistant Surgeon. The next investigation was undertaken at Satkhira
in Khulna where hundreds of animals had died of the disease. Inocula-
tion was undertaken in 5 centres and 1,681 animals protected by the
Serum Simultaneous method using goat blood virus (Edward's method).
Results were entirely satisfactory but this method is too costly for
general appplication on account of the serum to be used in conjunction
with the virus.
19. The next centre chosen was Nabagram (Murshidabad) where
a fierce outbreak was prevailing. The whole country was under water
at the time, roads also being knee deep in mud and water. Five
hundred sixty six animals were inoculated here with goat blood
virus alone. The result was entirely satisfactory and the outbreak
was controlled. The results of this work demonstrated that the produc-
tion of goat blood virus in the field is not a practical method to be
employed by Veterinary Assistant Surgeons, nor, on account of the
short period it retains its potency after manufacture, can it be prepared
at headquarters and distributed to the Veterinary Assistant Surgeons
in the field.
20. It was therefore decided to try the application of goat tissue
vaccine alone in place of goat virus alone to check outbreak of rinder-
pest. In 1932 Government of Bengal agreed to my deputation for 6
weeks to the Imperial Institute of Veterinary Research. The object of
this visit was to investigate the possibility of applying a virus alone in-
oculation for the control of outbreak of rinderpest in the field. As indi-
cated above the application of blood virus was not practical in the field