134
Deterioration of Cattle in Certain Parts of India
(iv) The Bundelkhand area of many different
soil formations where types vary noticeably with
the different types of soils.
(v) Hill tracts which can produce only the
poorest and smallest types of cattle and where
cattle from other tracts tend to rapid degeneration.
Within the above tracts, however, there are to
be found some areas which, though situated in a
tract where generally poor types of cattle are raised
are favoured in some way or other by suitable
soil and fodder conditions and are, therefore, able
to produce within these circumscribed areas cattle
much superior in type to the general type of the
tract.
In the rice-growing tracts of Bengal and Bihar,
the condition of the cattle is very similar to that
seen in other rice-growing tracts of India. Poor
specimens of small stunted animals are commonly
found in these areas. In Bihar, inspite of avail-
ability of plenty of grazing in the region where the
Kosi river flows, the cattle and buffaloes are of a
degenerate type, the average milk yield of cows
rarely exceeding one seer a day and that of
buffaloes varies from two to five seers a day.
At the Military Dairy Farms in the Punjab, Sind,
North-West Frontier Province, and Baluchistan, it
is said that the cattle do not appear to suffer from
any mineral deficiency. There is some evidence to
show that cows in the United Provinces and the
Central Provinces benefit by the addition of mine-
rals to their diet. Generally, yields of cows
increase as one travels north and east of Delhi
upto a height of 5,000 feet but excluding a narrow
strip at the foothills of the Himalayas. In ad-
dition, the high country in the Central Provinces
and the Deccan is fairly good in certain localities,
for example Jubbulpore and Secunderabad, al-
though it rains too much at Jubbulpore and cows
fall off in condition during monsoon. The United
Provinces is not good and gets worse as one travels
towards Bengal. Coastal areas are bad, until
Karachi is reached which area is fairly good and
improving as one travels north. Ruk and Rohri
are too humid for cows due to the Indus river.
In this broad outline, there are, of course, certain
local exceptions. High humidity combined with
high temperature has been found to be the worst
combination. In the opinion of many, no milch
animal can stand the strain of producing large
quantities of milk in such a climate for long and
the breed deteriorates. The best buffaloes are
bred in fairly dry localities and the ideal locality
for buffaloes appears to be a place where there is a
temperature of about 100°F. in the day and
about 70°F. at night, lots of green fodder, coarse
if necessary, and opportunity to wallow during
the major portion of the day.
The deterioration is not confined to individuals
only but also extends to their progeny, thus
causing a long range drop in efficiency of incalcu-
lable magnitude. The under-fed bullock is un-
able to perform work satisfactorily, the semi-
starved bull is incapable of producing strong and
virile progeny and the ill-nourished cow gives
very little milk. Besides the loss in milk yield,
the cow under such conditions of malnutrition does
not breed properly or regularly, often brings forth
weak and sickly or dead calf and thus causes a
further deterioration of the stock. All these
under-fed animals fall easy victims of the ravages
of disease and thus causes further expense and
loss. This deterioration of cattle has a far-
reaching effect on the agricultural operations and
human nutrition and health. In the words of
Sir Robert McCarrison [1927] it must be realized
that the problems of animal husbandry are also
the problems of human husbandry.
In these notorious areas, improvement of cattle
cannot be effected by any method of breeding,
unless the causes of deterioration are removed.
The scientific demonstration of a definite cause or
causes for a condition offers the best chance for
introducing preventive and curative treatment.
The problem of deterioration of cattle is a very
vast one and its causes may be many.
From the information available from other
countries, it is probable that diseases and internal
parasites like helminths, intestinal and blood
protozoa, etc. play an important role in livestock
deterioration and bring about heavy losses,
though there can be no doubt that the low
untritive value of the natural pasture is another
main cause of stock deterioration, especially
amongst village cattle in India which depend al-
most entirely on grazing. The endocrines as
affected by the deficiency of minerals, vitamins
and proteins, trace elements like cobalt, manganese
fluorine, selenium, etc., and environmental factors
such as climate, humidity, temperature, rainfall,
etc. also significantly affect the health of cattle.
REVIEW OF WORK DONE
A. Foreign countries
A review of available literature on the subject
shows that many notoriously bad areas for cattle
breeding are known in Africa, Europe, Australia
and other countries. A revolution has followed
the discovery of phosphorus deficiency as the
immediate or ultimate cause of serious losses in
this branch of Agriculture. Extensive research
work has been carried out on the various aspects
of the problem and it will be of interest to review
the same briefly in this note.
It has long been known that food must contain
lime and phosphorus for the formation of bone
and other inorganic salts for the blood and soft
tissues. As early as the beginning of last century
it was recognized that the lack of these might be