17
ANNUAL ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE CIVIL VETERI-
NARY DEPARTMENT, BOMBAY PRESIDENCY, FOR THE
YEAR 1917-18.
Lieut.-Colonel G. K. Walker held charge of the department throughout the
year. He was on tour for 121 days and travelled 11,404 miles by rail, 1,003 by
road and 40 miles by sea. He visited 13 districts, inspected 24 dispensaries and
6 stallion stands once, or more, and interviewed district officers and others in
regard to the work of the department. He also investigated several outbreaks of
contagious diseases. He visited the Northcote Cattle Farm at Chharodi 5
times. He acted as President of the Board of Examiners at the Bombay Ve-
terinary College in April and November. He inspected sites for the proposed
Cattle farms at (1) Bankapur (Dharwar District), (2) Sangola (Sholapur Dis-
trict), (3) Lonand (Satara District), (4) Sulia (West Khandesh) and visited Tegur
Farm (Dharwar) once. He attended a conference at Simla and acted as a mem-
ber of the Board of Agriculture at Poona. He visited Bombay several times for
purchasing stallions and also visited Capt. Crawford's Horse Breeding Farm at
Sirur. He visited the Cattle Insurance Society at Borbhatta in Broach District
once and attended the I. D. F. Camp of exercise.
2. Mr. J. D. Buxy held the post of the Deputy Superintendent and Per-
sonal Assistant to the Superintendent throughout the year. He was 108 days on
tour and travelled 7,255 miles by rail, 1,787 miles by road and 150 miles by
sea. He visited 16 districts and inspected 42 dispensaries and 12 stallion stands.
and attended several outbreaks of equine and bovine contagious diseases in the-
course of his tours. He attended the first village show at Gondawle in the Sa-
tara District and visited the Mhaswad Cattle Fair to purchase premium bulls. He-
investigated an extensive outbreak of surra in the Kanara and Dharwar districts.
He checked the work of Veterinary Assistants on tour and inspected various
Panjrapoles, Cattle markets, Dairies and slaughter houses. He visited the
Northcote Cattle Farm once.
I.—VETERINARY INSTRUCTION.
3. No post-graduate course was held at the Bombay Veterinary College
during the year under report. One Veterinary Assistant who went to the
Punjab Veterinary College last year as a post graduate student completed his
course during the year.
Practical instruction in field work was given to the newly joined Vete-
rinary Assistants by the Veterinary Inspectors as usual.
II.—TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
Table II.
4. During the year contagious disease was reported from all the districts
and from the City of Bombay. In all 21,137 deaths were
recorded against 25,801 last year. This is the first time for
a number of years in which a decrease in mortality has to be noted. It is due
to the fact that rinderpest and black-quarter were not so widely prevalent.
The Gujarat districts were practically free from both these diseases throughout
the year.
Since the Veterinary Assistants have been required to submit reports
on the outbreaks attended by them as a routine it has been the custom to re-
mind the revenue officials regarding the submission of statistical information
where it had not been received. During the year 681 calls for such returns
had to be issued from this office which means that in practically all these out-
breaks the figures would not have been received. This shows how a fully
manned Veterinary staff would tend to accuracy in the statistics and until
such time as this is provided they must remain more or less unreliable.
During the year the Veterinary Assistants attended 2,025 outbreaks, of
which 87 were also attended by the Veterinary Inspectors. This is fully a
hundred more than the number of outbreaks reported by the revenue officials,
showing that much is still to be desired in the manner in which the prevalence of
disease is brought to light by the village officers.
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