P. V. SUKHATME
167
turned out to be males and the remainder were
females. A search for lesions in the mucosa of the
caecum did not reveal any well-pronounced or clear-
cut lesions, except a few scattered petechiae and at
places an ill-defined and superficial erosion, but it
was found to be coated with a fair amount of
mucus and gave an impression of being some-
what thicker than normal.
DISCUSSION
As stated above, Srivastava considered that T.
vulpis infestation was widespread in India from the
fact that the material examined by him came from
about three different and distant localities. The
experience of the present writers who have examin-
ed several hundreds of faecal specimens from dogs
in Calcutta and have conducted post-mortem exa-
mination on a large number of dog carcases, and
those of other workers who have from time to time
reported on the parasitic fauna of Indian dogs,
has been against such an assumption. It may be
recalled that the pup reported upon in this paper
was an imported dog, and it is evident from the
available history that the infestation took place
before the pup arrived in India. Unfortunately,
Srivastava does not state whether the dogs were
imported or indigenous. It seems very likely
that his material also originated from imported
dogs. It does seem surprising that Trichuris
vulpis has not yet become an established parasite
of the indigenous dog, in spite of the fact that for
many years large numbers of dogs have been im-
ported into the country from different parts of the
world, including those places where Trichuris
vulpis is known to occur.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanks are due to Mr D. N. Das, G. V. Sc.,
House Surgeon, Bengal Veterinary College, for
kindly supplying the clinical history.
REFERENCE
Srivastava, H. D. (1942). Parasitol. 34, 122
[Note.—From literature which became available after
the submission of the above note to the press it appears
that eggs of T. vulpis in dog faeces have been noticed by
other workers before Srivastava. Kuppuswamy (An.
Rep. V. I. O., Orissa, 1940-41 and 1942-43) found them in
three dogs, but in this case also the details concerning
the origin of the infested dogs are not available.]
STATISTICAL STUDY OF A BREEDING EXPERIMENT WITH GOATS
By P. V. SUKHATME, Ph.D., D.Sc., Statistician, Imperial Council of Agricultural Research,
New Delhi
(Received for publication on 13 July, 1944)
THE experiment was started in 1931-32 with a
foundation stock of 36 Barbari does, nine female
kids and three bucks. Six more does and one buck
were purchased sometime later during the year
1935-37, thus bringing the total number of purchas-
ed goats to 51. The three original purchased bucks
were given the registered numbers 48M, 49M and
50M, and the fourth buck purchased later was
numbered 631M. The number of female kids
obtained from the foundation stock from each of
these bucks and which completed at least one lacta-
tion on the farm is given in Table I. Four more
TABLE I
Buckwise distribution of daughters of the first progeny
Buck No.
(1)
48M . .
49M . .
50M . .
Total .
Total number of
daughters from
these
(2)
26
16
3
45
Number of daugh-
ters completing at
least one lactation
(3)
14
8
1
23
daughters kept on the farm have not been entered
in this table as their mothers were bred unnoticed.
Some of the foundation stock was also mated to the
male progeny of 48M and 49M. The numbers of
daughters obtained from these are given in Table
II. In all, there were 34 daughters obtained from
19 mothers of the foundation stock. For conve-
nience, we shall hereafter call them the first
progeny.
TABLE II
Buckwise distribution of daughters of the first Progeny
Buck No.
(1)
144M . .
152M . .
633M . .
Total .
Unknown .
Total number of
daughters from
these
(2)
5
5
2
12
?
Number of daugh-
ters completing at
least one lactation
(3)
3
2
2
7
4
Out of the daughters born to the first progeny
from stud-bucks on the farm 29 completed one or
more lactations. These 29 are called the second
progeny. The buckwise origin of this progeny is
given in Table III. The third progeny which came
in milk before 31 March 1941 numbered