4
Animal Vaccination in Villages.
Animal vaccination from
village to village.
This year a new departure was made in the way of the introduction of animal vaccination
from village to village. The great difficulty that Vaccinators meet
is that of getting lymph from children, for arm to arm vaccination.
The people object, and with some reason, to have lymph taken from
their children. Owing to this general objection, large numbers have to be vaccinated from one
child, and the vesicles are irritated and many bad arms are caused. The Vaccinifers have also
to be got from the lowest and dirtiest classes, which is objectionable. The mothers try to hide
their children when they expect that lymph is to be taken from them, and often operations are
blocked. These difficulties led me to introduce animal vaccination in the Lahore District, and
as the Sikh population is very particular about the cow, probably as much so as the Maratha,
I tried the buffaloe, regarding which the chief Pandits informed me there was no religious
objection.
This proved very successful, and now in the Punjab about 90 per cent. of vaccinations
are done from animal lymph. I had strong hopes that the same thing could be done in the
Central Provinces, especially as in the Maratha population of Berar, it has proved very
successful. With the Gond and low caste Hindu populations and Mahomedans, no difficulty
was anticipated. In Jubbulpore District there is an objection among certain classes to all
vaccination. With the sanction of the Chief Commissioner I formed a class of instruction of
Superintendents of Vaccination at the Pachmarhi lymph dep6t. Those from Jubbulpore,
Mandla, Damoh, Betul, Chhindwara, Nimar, Seoni, Wardha, Narsinghpur and Hoshangabad
were called up and passed through a course of instruction, first in selection of healthy animals
and detecting signs of disease, under the Veterinary Hospital Assistant, and second in the
operations and preparation of lymph. They passed an examination in these subjects and were
sent to their Districts. The Superintendents of the other districts were sent to Nagpur for
instruction, and I took the opportunity when visiting head-quarter towns to show the opera-
tions required.
Method of operation.
The method of operation taught was that of valvular puncture. In preparing lanoline
lymph, abraded surfaces are required for collection of large quantities
of lymph, and these leave sores. In dealing with villages where
comparatively small numbers have to be vaccinated at one time, punctures are sufficient.
About four children can be done from each puncture. The advantages of this method are first
that the puncture gets sealed up by the blood clot on drying and there is no open surface
sore, and the animal can be returned in a few hours to its owner. The vaccine if properly intro-
duced is securely sealed up; second, if the operation is properly done and the puncture compressed
with the finger there is no effusion of blood, which is a matter of importance in the Hindu's opin-
ion ; third, it only causes a vesicle like a hardened pimple and no open sore, so that the owners
have less objections to the operation. In the Central Provinces in arm to arm vaccination the
scratcher is almost universally used, which causes an open abrasion. In dirty children,
and they are almost all dirty, this is apt to get inflamed from filth. Also the teeth of the
scratcher are with difficulty cleaned, and are more apt to innoculate filth. This method is
necessary for lanoline paste, which requires to be rubbed into an abraded surface.
But
I am certain that the method of puncture by a common bleeding lancet is much
preferable where fresh liquid lymph is available. This is universally used in the Punjab
and some other Provinces in preference to the scratcher. I saw a good many sore arms
when examining village vaccination in the Saugor and Damoh Districts, and those were
undoubtedly due to dirt getting into abraded surfaces, as the lymph used was fresh and
good. The puncture becomes scaled up when dry as described, the lymph is imprisoned, there
is no open sore and there is a better chance of typical vesicles in children so dirty as have to
be dealt with here generally.
The instructions given to the Superintendents were, first not to force any form of animal
lymph on the people, but to offer it to them; second, never to make the slightest concealment of
the source of any lymph they used; third, when possible to vaccinate buffaloes instead of calves;
fourth to vaccinate the animals openly that people might see what was done and give rise to no
erroneous rumours.
The appliances used were of the simplest kind—a piece of rope to hobble the animal,
a razor to shave the abdomen, soap and hot water for washing before operation and collection,
and a common bleeding lancet.
I examined the results in villages in the Saugor and Damoh Districts and at several
head-quarter towns, and the results were satisfactory, with the exception I have mentioned
that there were many sore arms, due to filth getting into the abrasions, and this was also the
case in arm to arm cases. I believe that a good beginning has been made, and the results will
be seen in the annual report. Some prejudices will have to be overcome, but when the people
find that no harm happens to their animals, and that they are relieved of having to give their
children for supply of lymph, the method will prove as useful and popular as it has done in
other Provinces.
W. CENTER, M. B.,
Offg. Sanitary Commissioner,
Central Provinces.