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Contagious Abortion of Cattle, Sheep and Goats
[ VOL. XVIII, PART III
Region 6. Central and northern Bombay and adjacent states
This region is bordered on the west by a fertile coastal plain, wide in the north, but narrowing
to the south, between the western ghats and the sea. The major portion of the interior is a plateau,
or hilly. Apart from June to October, when in the coastal tract the monsoon is exceptionally heavy
and is elsewhere considerable, the northern portions and interior are, for the rest of the year, practi-
cally without rain. The southern extremity however, receives more than 2 in. of rain during March,
April and May. Rainfall is, therefore, bi-seasonal at this spot only.
Village stock. As far as can be ascertained Brucellosis in village cattle is at present rare in this
region. It seems probable, however, that, in the coastal belt at least, infection may at any time
spread to the villages from the severe epidemics sometimes found on Bombay farms.
Organized farms. Most of the organized farms of this region lie in the coastal tract adjacent to
Bombay and many of them are private gowshalas, some of which have developed into quasi-com-
mercial concerns. Some carry indigenous cows whilst others combine these with buffaloes. There
are also a number of dairies in and around Bombay that keep in-milk buffaloes only.
There are four military farms carrying cross-bred stock in this region proper and another closeby
in the Central Indian Agency. In the four smaller farms the abortion rate is less than 2 per cent
per annum and the incidence of Brucella reactors is 12 per cent alike of tested buffaloes and cows.
In the fifth and largest farm, the annual abortion rate was 8 per cent of cows and 4 per cent of buffaloes,
while the incidence of Brucella reactors at the time of inspection was 41 per cent and 63 per cent
respectively. The former figure is surprisingly low and the latter, the highest on record for Indian
buffaloes.
But two farms of indigenous cows are believed to be free from Brucellosis, one a government
herd of Amrit Mahals at Bankapur and another a private herd of Gir cattle about 20 miles outside
Bombay city. In the remaining three herds, visited in 1940-41, abortions were occurring, although
their histories were unrecorded or confused, while, despite the great difficulty of obtaining permission
to bleed, positive Brucella reactors were found. The average abortion rate in these herds was 1 per
cent per annum and positive reactors occurred at the rate of 34 per cent of animals bled. Since
1940, severe epidemics of abortion have been found in two additional herds of this type; in one,
77 per cent of the breeding stock aborted in two years and 95 per cent of the aborting animals were
Brucella positive; in the other, 40 animals aborted in a few months. Both farms purchased from
Bombay city, pregnant animals which on abortion started the epidemics.
Once there were several buffalo dry-stock farms lying along the humid coastal belt, north of
Bombay and serving the milking stables of that city, but all have since been closed owing, it is alleg-
ed, to the very great incidence—said to be 50 per cent of abortion in their stock. Abortion in the
numerous Bombay city milking stables is, on the other hand, rare, because down-calving animals
are brought there directly from Gujrat and the Punjab and only remain for the period of profitable
lactation during which time most are non-pregnant. The incidence of reactors in some 126 empty
milking animals from these stables was 5.5 per cent; but in 37 pregnant animals, that had been
served in Bombay and were being sent away for the dry period, the rate had increased to 10 per cent.
The incidence of abortion in the most important permanent buffalo farm in the humid coastal tract
was 21 per cent for the years 1936 to 1940; a major endemic. Before 1936, the annual abortion
rate was 3.5 per cent, but in that year infection seems to have been introduced by the purchase of
16 dry buffaloes from Bombay city stables, 11 of which aborted. In 1940 the incidence of blood
reactors on this farm was 50 and 15 per cent of aborting and non-aborting animals respectively.
One or two buffalo farms, situated in the drier hinterland, have suffered minor epidemics of
abortion, and one outbreak can be definitely related to the purchase of animals from Bombay stables.
On the whole, therefore, it appears that many, though perhaps not all, Bombay stables are hotbeds
of infection and that the dispersion of pregnant animals therefrom is a cause of major and minor
epidemics or endemics elsewhere in the province. At one time, this conclusion was thought to con-
cern the buffalo trade only, but it has since transpired that cows also can be incriminated.