ORIGINAL ARTICLES
SOME ASPECTS OF ANTHRAX IN BENGAL
By *RAM NARAIN MOHAN, Veterinary Investigation Officer, Bengal, and SYED MAHMUD ALI,
B.Sc., M.R.C.V.S., Director of Veterinary Services, Bengal
( Received for publication on 22 July 1947 )
(With three text figures)
THE problem of ascertaining the efficacy of the new spore vaccine and serum manufactured
by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, as agents for prophylaxis against anthrax in
Bengal, was placed on the technical programme of the Veterinary Investigation Officer in 1945-46.
Before undertaking large-scale field trials with these products, it was considered desirable to collect
all available information concerning the disease as it occurred in Bengal, and it was necessary to
acquire some reliable information concerning such epizootiological aspects as seasonal prevalence,
regional distribution, etc. It was also considered pertinent to determine if large-scale annual vaccina-
tions were really advisable on technical as well as economic grounds. Records dating back to the
inception of the Civil Veterinary Department in Bengal were examined along with relevant data
concerning certain selected periods. The results of this study, and of some vaccination work which
was undertaken during the year concerned, were reported to the Indian Council of Agricultural Re-
search [Mohan, 1946]. In view of the desirability of comparing these findings with those of other
Provinces, the information collected is described below.
HISTORY
A perusal of the old annual reports of the Civil Veterinary Department, Bengal, shows that anthrax
was one of the few infectious and contagious diseases of animals which were well recognized to occur
in different parts of the Province at the inception of that Department in 1892. At that time, an-
thrax was known in India as 'Loodianah disease', but on closer study of the clinical features, the
identity of the two diseases soon became clear. In the 1896-97 report, in response to a request
from the Director of Land Records 'to draw up brief instructions describing symptoms, etc., of the
disease for circulation to all Collectors', Raymond [1897] appends a short clinical description of
'Loodianah disease' and concludes: 'For practical purposes, Anthrax and Loodianah are one and
the same disease, as far as our knowledge goes at present'. The tabulated statements, of districts
affected with cattle disease outbreaks appended to the 1898-99 report, contain the first anthrax
seizure and mortality figures in some districts of Bengal, as the Province is at present constituted
[June 1947]. The disease is almost every year reported to have caused varyin g degree of
mortality in the different districts ever since.
EXTENT OF MORTALITY
Speaking on the whole, the annual recorded mortality due to anthrax in Bengal, has been low.
Thus, mortality due to this disease in bovines recorded in the annual reports during a period of 32
years [1911-12 to 1942-43] constitutes only about 2.6 per cent (varying from 0.2 per cent to 16.8 per
cent) of the total mortality amongst this species of domesticated animals attributed to contagious
diseases. There have, however, been certain periods when anthrax caused heavy mortality in the
Province, either when it broke out in most districts and caused heavier all-round mortality or when
it assumed the form of large-sized epizootics involving considerable areas of one or more districts.
Below is given a brief account of mortality caused by the disease in Bengal during the years 1898-1945.
Starting from a small total of 40 in five districts in 1898-99, death figures due to anthrax sudden-
ly rose to a total of 804 in 18 districts in 1899-1900, gradually coming down to 17 (only one district
affected) by 1902-03. In 1903-04, there were only 39 deaths in three districts. In the following
year, 473 deaths were recorded from seven districts, 440 of these being from Mymensingh. In 1905-
06, there were only 51 deaths, and no deaths were recorded during the succeeding three years. Then
for eight years, mortality varied irregularly between 17 in 1910-11 and 162 in 1912-13, but in 1917-18,
it suddenly rose to 1,683 being followed by 2,555 deaths in 1918-19. In 1917-18, 12 districts were
* New Veterinary Investigation Officer, United Provinces, Lucknow.