242
Protein for Egg Production
abnormalities such as bony exostoses etc. the
bone-meal feeding relieved them of acute symp-
toms like lameness and painful joints, but had
a very little effect in reducing the exostoses.
The duration of the treatment is long and
marked improvement is noticed after a course
of treatment lasting from six months to one or
two years. When the treatment with bone-
meal is discontinued on finding improvement in
condition, there is a possibility of relapse, hence
affected animals in enzootic areas require treat-
ment as long as they live.
(b) Preventive. Prophylactically the bone-
meal may be recommended for supplementing
the diet of cattle grazing on deficient pasture,
as it would not only prevent the disease, but
also improve the rate of growth of young stock.
Moreover the bone-meal fed animals have got a
tendency to maintain the advantage during the
seasons when the grazing is generally poor.
The Government Agricultural Chemist recom-
mends the addition of lime to the water of the
wells in affected localities, as this process re-
duces the fluorine content of the water.
SUMMARY
1. This disease in cattle known as Voyo potlu
locally, was first observed in Madras Presidency
in 1934-35 in Kurnool district. Since then its
incidence has been known in certain villages of
Nellore and Cuddapah districts around the hills,
being related to the condition of the soil, pasture,
foodstuffs and water and the nature of the pre-
vailing agricultural practices.
2. There is no seasonal incidence. The
disease runs a chronic course affecting 5 to 10
per cent of cattle population in an enzootic area.
One peculiarity about the disease is that while
its incidence is heavy in one village, the neigh-
bouring village may be free from it.
3. The main etiological factor is the presence
of fluorine in an abnormal amount in soil.
pastures and the water, followed by aphospho-
rosis and vitamin deficiency.
4. The main feature of the disease is the pre-
sence of exostosis on the ribs and the joints,
and overgrowth and deformity of hoofs. Frac-
tures and ulcerations of articular heads and a
few bony prominences are the characteristic
lesions on post mortem examination.
5. There is no complete or successful treat-
ment in advanced cases. In early stages treat-
ment is only palliative.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to express my great gratitude to Major
G. Williamson, Animal Husbandry Commis-
sioner with the Govt. of India, for help in pre-
paring the article for publication and to Mr. T.
J. Hurley, M.R.C.V.S., D.V.S.M., I.V.S., the
Director of Veterinary Services, Madras and his
departmental staff for all the assistance render-
ed in the course of investigations. My thanks
are due also to the Director of the Imperial
Institute of Veterinary Research, Mukteswar
and his staff of the nutrition section; to the
Principal and staff of the Madras Veterinary
College; to Mr. P. V. Ramiah, the Government
Agricultural Chemist, Coimbatore, for kindly
carrying out the analysis of water, fodder, bone.
teeth, etc., for determining the flourine content,
to Dr. C. G. Pandit, the Director, and Rao
Sahib T. N. S. Raghavachari of the King Insti-
tute of Preventive Medicine, Guindy, for help-
ful advice and constructive criticisms; to S.
Venkatarama Ayyar. G.M.V.C., the Veterinary
Assistant Surgeon for valuable help rendered:
to the College artist Duraiswami Mudaliar for
taking photographs.
REFERENCES
Ramiah, P. V. (1938-39). Detailed report of work done
under the I. C. A. R. scheme for the extension of
animal nutrition at Coimbatore for 1938-39
Ramiah, P. V. (1941). Indian Fmg. 2, 634
PROTEINS FOR EGG PRODUCTION, II
By A. J. MACDONALD, Officer-in-charge, Poultry Research Section,
Imperial Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar
(Received for publication on 9 March,-1944)
PREVIOUS experiments carried out by Macdonald
and Bose [1943] demonstrated that a cereal
ration containing 10.4 per cent protein gave
poor egg production, even when supplemented
with common salt and liberal amounts of green
food and calcium. The addition of vegetable
proteins, such as soya bean meal and earthnut
meal, to the cereal rations had no beneficial
effect, but supplements of separated milk and
meat offal on the other hand markedly improved
egg production. In view of the importance of
these results another experiment was designed
to throw more light on several other aspects of
the work.
In this experiment all the birds