4
out during an outbreak: and as the disease in this Presidency, although very common,
never seems to carry off more than a few animals in each village, ryots cannot be
persuaded to have it done until the disease actually breaks out.
Black quarter.—Five thousand four hundred and thirty-seven deaths were
reported under this head against 6,308 during 1911-12.
The central part of the Presidency seems to be the most infected with the virus
of this disease, and again Guntur, Kurnool and parts of Chittoor suffered to the
greatest extent. A more systematic attempt by the agency of the Inspectors was
made to carry out vaccination against this disease with Blacklegoids, and although
no vaccinations were actually performed during the year under report, a start was
made at the very beginning of the current year.
Foot and Mouth Disease.—The reported losses from this disease show a decrease
of 750 over the figures of last year. Madura and Coimbatore both report over a
hundred deaths, otherwise the losses were trifling. From this it must not be
supposed that the disease was not prevalent during the year. It occupied a good
deal of the touring Veterinary Assistants attention and no difficulty was experienced
in obtaining plenty of material for the Foot and Mouth Disease Commission, which
was in this country during the cold weather.
Owing to an outbreak of this disease amongst the animals imported into Penang
from Negapatam, the traffic was prohibited for a while, which caused serious dislo-
cation of a thriving trade in the above mentioned port. It was suggested that a
quarantine station should be formed there, but as the Penang authorities were
unwilling to support the scheme financially, the matter was dropped.
Piroplasmosis.—Most of the specimens examined were from dogs. The three
positive cases relate to two of Piroplasma canis and one of the so-called Piroplasma
Gibsonii.
(ii) Other diseases.—The total number of cases treated on tour was 8,868 as
against 5,408 in 1911-12. The practice of treating cases on tour was only seriously
taken up in the middle of 1911 and may therefore be considered to have made very
fair progress.
The number of castrations performed on tour by Veterinary Assistants and
Veterinary Inspectors has also risen from 243 to 1,496. Besides these, 295 castrations
were performed at hospitals and salustries performed 182 castrations this year against
282 in the previous year. The decrease in castrations by salustries is due to the fact
that only two men were employed at the beginning of the year and that one of these
was discharged in November.
During the year 20,716 head of cattle, 14,789 sheep and 106,161 goats were
examined at the Quarantine Depot at Tuticorin before export to Colombo. The aver-
age daily export of cattle and of sheep and goats was 56.7 and 331.3 against 41.9 and
303.2 respectively during 1911-12. Two hundred and ten animals brought for export
were found to be suffering from foot and mouth disease and all with the exception of
35 were cured and passed for export. Tweny-two out of the 35 were slaughtered in
Tuticorin and the rest remained under treatment on 1st April 1913. No other
contagious disease was discovered in the animals brought for export. The quarantine
exercised at Tuticorin has been very successful in preventing diseased animals from
getting admittance into Colombo, as during the year only 17 animals were found
affected with foot and mouth disease and four with rinderpest and in all these cases
the disease was discovered towards the end of the quarantine period at Colombo. In
addition to the quarantine work, the Veterinary Assistant treated 120 cases for
ordinary diseases, granted certificates in respect of 8 asses and 49 horses exported to
Ceylon, and castrated one horse.
(iii) Hospitals.—The most noticeable feature in the returns from hospitals is the
almost stationary position most of them seem to have maintained since the previous
year. It is very probable however that in reality these stationary hospitals, and even
some of those which show a slight decrease, actually did more work during the year
under review ; for as pointed out in last year's annual report it was during that year
1911-12, that more stringent methods of calculation of "admissions" and "attend-
ances" were enforced. Trichinopoly heads the list with 1,773 admissions, and is
closely followed by Bellary and Coimbatore.