ORIGINAL ARTICLES
CLIMATIC FACTORS AS RELATED TO THE INCIDENCE OF EQUINE
STRANGLES IN INDIA
By F. C. MINETT, Imperial Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteswar
(Received for publication on 8 March 1944)
(With 12 text-figures)
IN a previous article [Minett, 1944] an account
was given of the recorded incidence of strangles
at the Army Remount Depots of Mona and Sargo-
dha in the Shahpur District of the Punjab and at
the Stud Farms of Probynabad, Coleyana and
Renala in the Montgomery District of the Punjab
and of Ahmednagar in Bombay. These records
extend back to 1917 and 1927 in the case of Mona
and Sargodha, while in the case of the stud farms
they cover varying periods of years between 1914
and 1942. In that article the animal husbandry
arrangements at the depots and farms were des-
cribed and the problem of controlling the disease
in remount depots was dealt with. In the present
paper an attempt is made to throw further light
on the question whether conditions of climate are
in any way concerned with the prevalence of the
disease at the places mentioned.
DATA
Meteorological. The following data were sup-
plied by the India Meteorological Department:
District
or
station
Montgomery
Sargodha .
Ahmednagar
Montgomery
(District)
Shahpur
(District)
Period
1914—41
1927—40
1928—41
1918—40
Elements
(i) Monthly
rainfall,
in
inches; (ii)Maximum tempe-
rature, in °F : (iii) Mini-
mum temperature, in °F ;
(iv) Relative humidity in
per cent, at 8 hours L.M.T. ;
(v) Wind volocity, in m.p.h ;
(vi) Wind direction, normal
percentage frequencies by
months at 8 hours L.M.T.
and 17 hours I.S.T. ; (vii)
Average number of days of
Dust storms, by months.
[For (ii) to (v) means of
daily figures were given by
months.]
District average of rainfall, by
months.
DATA—contd.
District
or
station
Sargodha
Montgomery
Sargodha .
Montgomery
Period
1936—40
(a)1890—
1920
(b)1936
—40
1935—39
Elements
(vi) Wind direction, normal
percentage frequencies by
months (a) at 8 hours L.M.T.
and (b) at 17 hours I.S.T.
(vii) average number of days
of Dust storms, by months.
It is to be noted that Mona is 40 miles north of
Sargodha and that the nearest observatory is at
Sargodha, and also that Ahmednagar stud farm is
quite close to the observing station at that town.
Figures for daily rainfall and daily maximum and
minimum temperatures were also obtained from
each remount depot and from the Okara Military
Farm, which is situated at a distance of 5 and 13
miles to the west of Coleyana and Renala respec-
tively. Renala is eight miles east of Coleyana,
while Probynabad is 20 miles to the south. Mont-
gomery town, the nearest observatory to Okara,
is at a point about 23 miles to the west Monthly
average rainfall figures for Renala were also avail-
able.
Altitudes are as follows Sargodha, 614
Montgomery 558 ; Ahmednagar, 2154 .
The data supplied by the Meteorological Depart-
ment have been averaged to give the mean month-
ly figures for the period during which the case
incidence of strangles is being considered. The
figures, with the exception of those for Wind
Direction, are shown in Table I.
Strangles incidence and mortality by months.
The figures for the depots and farms are set out in
Table II, horses and mules being shown separately,
while in Table III the total incidence figures from
Table II have been arranged according to certain
well-defined seasons. In Figs. 1 to 6 the meteoro.
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