( 14 )
In February foot-and-mouth disease was reported by Veterinary
Lieutenant E. E. Martin amongst the Commissariat bullocks at Dum-Dum.
At his request, I inspected 172 head of slaughter cattle and 89 transport
bullocks, and found four bullocks suffering. The conductor in charge was
treating them properly under Veterinary Lieutenant Martin's direction.
46. In the Mufassal.—Appended are two statements (Appendices XX,
XXI), one showing the districts where cattle diseases broke out during the year
under report, and the other showing the action taken by this Department to
check them. It will be seen from the statement (XX) that the number of
reported attacks is the greatest from Birbhum. The numbers from Gaya,
Jalpaiguri and Dinajpur are also great.
The figures have been compiled from the post-card reports. The system
of reporting cattle disease on post-cards by thana officers has proved to be
a success, for, though it is not absolutely perfect, it is a very great improve-
ment upon the old system. The figures given appear to be large, but from
my knowledge of some of the districts, I believe that the actual number of cases
reported is less than actually occurred.
During the year, I have very frequently felt the want of more Veterinary
Assistants, and have been compelled to employ senior students.
EXPERIMENTS.
47. Rinderpest.—At the request of Mr. E. Keventer of the Aligarh Dairy
Farm, I detailed a trained Veterinary Assistant to inoculate the farm cattle
with bile. The disease broke out on the 16th April, my assistant arrived on
the 3rd May, inoculation began on the 13th May, and the outbreak ceased on
the 7th June.
The herd consisted of about 388 animals, 65 animals died before the
inoculations, 15 died while the inoculations were progressing, 6 developed
the disease a few days after they had been inoculated, and three caught the
disease about 10 months after the inoculation, during another outbreak.
Altogether 291 animals, mostly cows, were inoculated; of these 70 buffaloes
and 26 Zebu cows were in calf; but none of them aborted as a result of the
treatment. Six developed rinderpest after inoculation (3 died, 3 recovered).
Five were possibly infected at the time of inoculation, but this does not
apply to the sixth, which was attacked 22 days after inoculation. In this
case, the bile does not appear to have exercised much or any immunising
effect. Mr. Keventer thought that the outbreak had been stopped by the bile
treatment.
At the close of the official year, I enquired of Mr. Keventer, if an
outbreak of rinderpest had occurred since the inoculation. He answered
in the affirmative, saying that three of the cattle inoculated in May 1899 had
died of rinderpest in March 1900, and 10 animals that had not been inoculat-
ed (presumably purchased since the inoculations) had died of the disease.
He says:—"It seems peculiar that the disease should stop after so few cases"
and "that the disease did not spread wider in the herd, I consider must
depend on the inoculation." Taken alone, the cessation of the outbreak
might be put down to a possible coincidence, but as it follows upon the very
searching test made with the Kanti cattle, I think it may be suggested that
buffalo bile is very often effective for not less than 10 months and probably
for a longer period. (In the case of the Kanti cattle it was effective for over
12 months.)
It is unfortunate that the bile takes time to prepare in sufficient quan-
tities, and also time to render an animal immune after it is injected. On
the other hand, there are objections to the preparation of serum in Bengal.
But the Imperial Bacteriologist now prepares anti-rinderpest serum of
standardized strength, which may be considered free from all drawbacks,
and I propose to experiment with it. For this purpose, I have communica-
ted with him and he has been kind enough to say that he will let me have a
supply when I want it.
48. Surra.—I have found that the trypanosoma of this disease are not
infrequently present in the blood of cattle in Lower Bengal.
49. Glanders.—Experiments seem to suggest that mallein cannot be relied
upon to cure advanced cases, nor as a preventive.