16
The Veterinary Assistants attended 1,871 outbreaks of which 318 were
also attended by the Veterinary Inspectors. The number of outbreaks reported
to the staff by the revenue officials was 1,550. The remaining 321 had
been brought to the notice of the Veterinary Assistants by private individuals.
Equine contagious disease.
5. Eleven cases of glanders were reported from Bombay City. Surra
was reported from six districts and from Bombay City. There were 102
deaths against 154 in the last year. The disease was severe in the Thana and
Kaira Districts, but the mortality shows a decrease in the Kolaba District
compared with last year. As usual this disease was in nearly all cases brought
to light by the staff on their periodic inspections of Tonga lines.
Bovine contagious disease.
6. Rinderpest was reported from all the districts of the Presidency.
The number of deaths recorded was 5,910 against 6,870 last year.
These figures cannot be relied on as showing that the year has been a
comparatively healthy one so far as rinderpest is concerned. The facts are
the reverse and the disease has been particularly widespread. Last year there
were only 452 outbreaks of rinderpest reported while this year the number
was 793. The mortality from rinderpest as shown by the figures of the
epizootic disease reports submitted by the staff when they investigate an
outbreak is 9,479 which is nearly double that of the village officers' reports on
which we depend for our statistics, notwithstanding the fact that the former
are usualy based on a single visit whereas the latter are supposed to be weekly
returns of the mortality throughout the duration of the outbreak. With a
view to obtaining some information that would give a more or less accurate
idea of the losses from this disease special investigations were carried out by
Khan Saheb Buxy in Surat District and Veterinary Inspector Nagarsheth in
Nasik District.
In Surat district the investigation extended to 63 villages in many of which
the enquiries were made by Khan Saheb Buxy personally. In these 63 villages
668 animals were known to have died from rinderpest which Khan Saheb Buxy
values at Rs. 71,300, roughly Rs. 106 per head, which is a very low valuation of
the cattle in Surat. In Olpad Taluka special facilities for enquiry were afforded
in 4 villages in which the total number of cattle was 1,000 head; of these 180
died all valuable animals worth about Rs. 25,000.
In Nasik district the enquiry extended to 67 villages in Satana, Chandor,
Kalwan and Malegaon Talukas. The total number of deaths was 989, which,
at Rs. 45 per head, gives a loss to these Talukas of Rs. 44,505. These are
facts as accurate as they can be ascertained at present but further speculation
based on the present available data as to the total loss inflicted in the whole
Presidency by contagious disease would be misleading.
Regarding the distribution of Rinderpest, Kolaba was the most seriously
affected of the districts. The whole of the northern and central divisions
were severely affected however, the districts suffering most being those into,
and through which, famine stricken cattle were moved. Thus Nasik and
West-Khandesh suffered very severely and also Panch-Mahals. The southern
division was comparatively free from the disease.
7. Foot and mouth disease was prevalent in all the districts, and accounted
for 256 deaths out of 16,158 animals reported to have been attacked.
8. Hæmorrhagic Septicæmia was reported from 15 districts, of which
Surat and Dharwar suffered the most. The total mortality recorded was
545 against 724 last year.
9. Black-quarter was reported from 5 districts and accounted for 80
deaths of which 50 deaths were reported from Ahmednagar.
10. Anthrax was reported from 7 districts and caused 404 deaths;
Thana district reporting 202 deaths.