6
REPORT OF THE IMPERIAL BACTERIOLOGICAL LABORATORY,
relatively easy and mortality en route from lack of grazing was small.
Hence, the out-kraals became congested with cattle at these seasons and
there was among them subsequently considerable mortality due, frequent-
ly, to foot-and-mouth disease, inanition, and a peculiar form of weakness
without definite lesions probably comparable to the fatal condition, the
socalled Bergkrankheit, commonly observed among cattle taken up for
grazing into the higher regions of the Swiss Alps.. (The altitude of
Muktesar is 7,500 feet above sea level.) Owing, therefore, to the pressing
necessity of obtaining the best available animals for virus production and
for the large scale investigations upon the etiology and immunity of
rinderpest and for effecting all possible economies, arrangements were
made to effect contracts with suitable individuals for the supply to
Muktesar of hill bulls, to be paid for at graded rates according to
conformation to type, age, and condition, as judged by the Veterinary
Officer, and to be delivered in batches at stated intervals during the year
to meet the current needs of the laboratory. A scale of prices was
drawn during the 1923-24 season, and the arrangements proved to be
mutually most satisfactory to the laboratory and the contractors.
After the year's experience, the grading and scales of payment were
somewhat modified for the 1924-25 season. The apparently greater
consumption in bulls is due chiefly to the purchase of smaller animals
as desired.
Efforts to dispose of hill bulls discontinued from use by sale to culti-
vators proved almost wholly ineffectual, as they were too small for their
use, and hence such animals were utilized in the course of researches into
other important diseases.
During both seasons the buffaloes utilized at Izatnagar were
purchased by the staff in local markets and fairs, as this procedure was
found to be more economical than purchase from contractors. The
mortality among the buffaloes during the process of serum making there
was relatively small, 35.88 per cent during the winter season 1922-23,
and 21.93 per cent during the season 1923-24. The discontinued
buffaloes were for the most part disposed of by sale, but some were
returned to Muktesar for further use.
As will be indicated later in this report, the expenditure upon cattle
during the two years under review has been fully justified. In past years
considerable anxiety had been felt by officers in charge of this laboratory
on account of the outcry among certain sections of the community
against the destruction of cattle at the institution. It was indeed appre-
ciated that the procedure of hyper-immunization carried out in the pro-
duction of an anti-rinderpest serum offended the cherished beliefs of
the Hindu population, and that even the contention that the serum
obtained saved the lives of large numbers of cattle in India did not alto-
gether furnish them with the conviction necessary to allay their fears.
Hence, having in mind that the full understanding and sympathy of the
community must be enlisted if progress was to be made in controlling
one of the greatest limiting factors in its welfare, the diseases of its live-