REVENUE DEPAETMENT.
AGRICULTURE.
DARJEELING, THE 20TH SEPTEMBER 1907.
RESOLUTION—No. 1T67T.R.
READ—
The Annual Report of the Civil Veterinary Department, Bengal, and of the Bengal
Veterinary College for the year 1906-07.
Bengal Veterinary College.—The total number of students on the roll of the
Bengal Veterinary College at the end of the year under report was 104 as
against 106 in the previous year. The results of the last annual examination
are highty satisfactory, the percentage of the successful students in each of the
classes A, B and C being 96.66, 100 and 87.09, respectively, as compared with
57, 82 and 47 in the previous year. Many projects of extension and improve-
ment have occupied the attention of the Managing Committee and of Govern-
ment during the past year. The institution is developing rapidly. The
Bacteriological Laboratory of the College has been completed and equipped with
furniture and apparatus. The extension of the Glanders and Farcy Act to
Calcutta and its suburbs has added very considerably to the work of the
Principal.
So far no serious difficulties have arisen in connection with
the administration of the Act.
2. Veterinary Infirmary, Belgachia.—The total number of cases treated in
the Infirmary attached to the Veterinary College was 3,095, of which 1,905
were in-patients and 1,190 out-patents, as against 2,407, of which 1,483 were
in-patients and 924 out-patients in the preceding year. The institution
is gaining in popularity.
3. Veterinary Hospitals and Dispensaries.—The
number of Veterinary
Hospitals and Dispensaries, excluding the Bengal Veterinary College, working
at the close of the year under review was 23 as against 20 in the preceding year.
Two new dispensaries were started in Jessore and Sambalpur, and a Pinjrapole
was established at Hazaribagh. The Superintendent should in future record
more fully his opinion as to the manner in which the several institutions have
worked during the year, and the causes of success or failure, as the case may
be. The total number of in- and out patients treated during the year was
32,736, of which 10,435 were horses, 18,525 cattle and 3,776 other animals,
as against 9,018, 14,189 and 3,698, respectively, in 1905-06. In some cases
(e.g.,Palamau), there has been a marked increase, while in others (e.g., Howrah)
there has been a large decline.
4. Diseases —The number of reported deaths of cattle from contagious
diseases shows a considerable increase over that of the previous year, viz., from
12,374 to 59,857, of which 38,832 occurred in the 24-Parganas district alone.
The increase is, no doubt, due in part to a better system of reporting; but a
further explanation should be given of the figures returned from the 24-Parganas
district.
Excluding the figures for the Infirmary at the Sodepur Pinjrapole, where
478 equine cases were admitted, of which 313 were infected with glanders,
there were 875 cases of deaths from glanders and farcy as against 530 in the
year.
Inoculation for rinderpest continues to make satisfactory progress. The
number of these inoculations was 24,074 as compared with 22,613 in the
previous year and 9,454 in 1903-04. The number of deaths after inoculation
has fallen to 84 as compared with 183 and 166, respectively, in the two previous
years. Prompt and effectual measures were taken to combat outbreaks of
anthrax.