REVENUE
DEPARTMENT.
AGRICULTURE.
DARJEELING, THE 9TH SEPTEMBER 1905.
RESOLUTION—No. 2943T.—R.
READ—
The Annual Report of the Civil Veterinary Department, Bengal, and of the Bengal
Veterinary College for the year 1904-1905.
The report was due on the 1st July 1905 and was received on the same
date.
2. Veterinary Instruction.—The
number of students who attended the
Bengal Veterinary College throughout the year under review was 85
practically double the number of the preceding year. The results of the
examinations are, in the opinion of the Lieutenant-Governor, highly creditable
to the Principal and teaching staff. On account of the rapid development of
the College, sauction has been accorded to proposals which will effect great
changes. An additional area of 106 bighas 19 cottahs, at a cost of Rs. 2,15,948
was acquired by Government during the year; and a programme has been
drawn up for the construction of buildings, including hostels for students,
isolated boxes for diseased horses, a dissecting room, a lecture theatre, and
other important works, all urgently required, at an estimated cost of
Rs. 4,00,000. As the Government of India have recently allotted extra funds
to the Government of Bengal for the development of agriculture, including
the veterinary department, this Government will now be in a position to
complete-the buildings more rapidly. Proposals are also under consideration
to appoint a separate Imperial officer as Principal of the College, as the work
of superintendence will in future take up the whole of one officer's time. The
Lieutenant-Governor attaches much importance to the development of this
scheme, especially as the College is the recruiting ground for veterinary
graduates not only for Bengal but also for Assam.
3. Treatment of Discuse.—One hundred and eight horses against 57 of the
preceding year were treated in the Belgachia Contagious Diseases' Hospital
for glanders and farcy, of which 17 recovered. In the whole Province 447
deaths from this disease were reported; of these 413 were diagnosed in the
24-Parganas district. The Glanders and Farcy Act will shortly be brought
into force in Calcutta, and thus the prevalence of the disease will be brought
more closely to the notice of the horse-owning public.
4. The number of deaths of cattle from contagious diseases shows a
considerble increase over that of the year 1903-1904, the number having risen
from 9,529 to 15,108. The increase was principally due to rinderpest, the
number of deaths from which rose from 7,456 to 11,363; this disease was
particulaly prevalent in Shahabad, a district which scarcely suffered at all
in the preceding year. Of this number (11,363) only 183 had been previously
inoculated. Altogether 13,276 animals were inoculated with the anti-rinder-
pest serum against 9,454 during the year 1903-1904. These good results are
doubtless due to the measures taken by the Superintendent to disseminate
the knowledge and value of the use of the serum, by the deputation of
Staff Veterinary Assistants to different districts, and by the training of local
Veterinary Assistants at Bareilly in inoculation for rinderpest. Foot-and-mouth
disease was most prevalent in Ranchi, anthrax in Mymensingh, and hæmor-
rhagic septicæmia in the Sonthal Parganas. Specially good work is reported
to have
been done in Darbhanga and Saran by Veterinary Assistants
on tour in the treatment of cattle for contagious diseases, and the number of
deaths reported from these two districts were very small compared with the
large number of animals treated.
5. Veterinary Dispensaries and Assistants.—The
total number of dispen-
saris, excluding the Bengal Veterinary College, working at the close of the
year under review was 21 against 22 of the preceding year.
Though
the number of patients is apparently less than last year, there has actually