68
The Cattle of India and their Development
In the field of disease-control one of the most important contributions
made by the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research is the appointment
of Disease Investigation Officers in the various Provinces and States. The
first batch was appointed in 1932, and a disease-investigation staff is now at
work in every British province and in Hyderabad and Mysore States. When
these officers were appointed it was emphasized that they should work in close
collaboration with the Central Veterinary Research Institute at Mukteswar,
should carry out comprehensive surveys of disease conditions in the field, and
supply requisite material and information for detailed research. As expected,
this scheme has provided a valuable liaison between the Central Institute
and the field staff, and has proved an efficient agency for the application
of the latest methods of disease-control. One of the most outstanding achieve-
ments of the staff is the initiation of the new technique of goat-virus vaccina-
tion against rinderpest, which is the most dreaded scourge of cattle-breeders
in India. This new technique of rinderpest control, which is both cheap and
effective, is now adopted as a routine all over the country both as a prophylac-
tic and for the control of outbreaks. Its adoption has resulted in tremendous
saving in the cost of immunization, and enabled the veterinary staff to confer
protection on a much larger number of cattle than formerly. The work of the
Disease Investigation Officers has also brought to light a mass of useful infor-
mation on many other diseases, some very obscure, which, however, cannot be
enumerated within the space of this article.
Besides the disease-investigation officers' scheme, other research schemes
relating to helminthological and protozoological problems, investigation into
tuberculosis, Johne's disease, contagious abortion, &c., have also been put into
operation by the Council.
The various problems of animal nutrition have also been considered by the
Council, and schemes relating to mineral metabolism, feeding-values of rice
straw and other indigenous fodders, certain food grains, oil-seeds and cakes,
and preparation of cattle-feeds from molasses, & c., have been in operation for
several years now ; results of practical importance are accumulating.
Another important step taken by the Council is the constitution of a
Standing Central Fodder and Grazing Committee. The objects of this Commit-
tee are to secure systematic and progressive improvement in grazing and grass
land areas, and the conversion of waste lands into useful grazing wherever that
is economically possible. Many of the provinces have set up local counter-
parts of the Central Committee. As a result, work is now in progress over a
large area, in collaboration with the local agricultural and forest departments,
designed to secure both the prevention of erosion and the supply of larger
quantities of cattle fodder.
(c) Activities of the provinces.—Every Provincial Government maintains
one or more cattle farms where the main work is the systematic improvement
of the important local breeds by selective breeding. Attempts were made in
the past to cross local cattle with bulls imported from abroad, e.g. Ayrshire,
Friesian, and Shorthorn, the object being to introduce factors for high milk
production in the progeny. But the deterioration in the constitution in
subsequent crosses and other limitations of this system, particularly the im-
practicability of judicious culling, has led to this policy being abandoned, and
attention is now concentrated on the imporvement of the indigenous breeds