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Table III.
22. Preventive inoculation.—Table III shows the number treated with
the results of preventive inoculation during the year.
23. There were in all 537 outbreaks of rinderpest, hæmorrhagic septi-
cæmia and anthrax, and 84,896 animals were inoculated as against 67,083
animals in 426 outbreaks of the previous year. The details are as under:—
Rinderpest ... ...
Hæmorrhagic septicæmia
Anthrax ... ...
Total
...
...
...
...
1919-20.
77,160
7,003
733
84,896
1918-19.
60,051
2,141
4,891
67,083
These figures exclude 91. cases of inoculations performed in Calcutta
and its suburbs by the staff of the Bengal Veterinary College.
24. There is still much apathy and prejudice amongst the cultivators in
some districts and the Veterinary Assistants have occasional difficulty in
getting the treatment adopted.
25. The delay in the receipt of outbreak reports is not uncommon still,
and as a result the Veterinary Assistant's arrival with serum frequently
coincides with subsidence of the attack, many animals having succumbed in
the meantime.
26. Failure, on the part of the chowkidars, to report was also in evidence.
For instance, in the Rajshahi Circle out of 125 reports of outbreaks of rinder-
pest received by the Veterinary Assistants only 84 were sent in by the Thana
Officers. In the remaining cases the outbreaks were either detected by the
Veterinary Assistants themselves in the course of their ordinary tours, or were
reported to them by the villagers. Of course, this does not prove that reports
would not have been sent in later by the chowkidars themselves. Still
the diseases must have been raging in their localities before the reports were
received personally by the Veterinary Assistants and should have been
reported. Steps are now being taken to ensure more regular and prompt
submission of these reports to the Veterinary Assistants by securing the
co-operation of the people themselves through the medium of Veterinary
Union Committees.
27. As matters now stand some time is necessarily lost in obtaining
serum from Belgachia by the Veterinary Assistants in the districts. It has
therefore been proposed to have serum storage cellars at each district
headquarters, and a plan has accordingly been prepared by me for this
purpose. The District Boards of Mymensingh and Barisal have undertaken
to make the experiment, and if they prove a success suggestions will be
made to other district boards to do likewise. This will expedite the work of
inoculation in the interior to a great extent.
28. The death rate amongst the inoculated was negligible being only
04 for the whole Province.
29. A sum of Rs. 12,543-1 was paid during the year to the Imperial
Bacteriologist at Muktes war on account of the cost of sera and vaccines.
Table IV.
30. Table IV shows the muffassal work of the Veterinary Assistants.
31. There were altogether 77 Veterinary Assistants working in the
province of whom 55 were purely itinerating and 22 both itinerant and
stationary. The latter toured in the interior either at fixed periods or at
the time of outbreaks. Together they visited 12,831 villages and treated
58,761 cases as again8t 13,462 villages and 58,025 cases in the previous year.
The increase in the number of cases treated would have been much greater
had the department been able to send substitutes for many temporary vacan-
cies caused by Veterinary Assistants taking leave during the year.
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