RESOLUTION
ON THE
REPORT ON THE CIVIL VETERINARY DEPARTMENT, BURMA
For the year ended the 31st March 1919.
Extract from the proceedings of the Government of Burma in the Development Department,—
No. 1V.-33 of 1919.
READ—
The Report on the Civil Veterinary Department (including the Insein Veterinary School, Burma),
for the year 1918-19, and the remarks in the forwarding letters of the Director of Agriculture
and the Financial Commissioner, Burma.
Resolution.—The year 1918-19 witnessed a continuance of that
recrudescence of rinderpest which was so serious a feature in the previous year's
history. The ravages of the disease were especially felt in Lower Burma, where the
deaths specifically ascribed to this cause amounted to over 20,000, Tharrawaddy,
Insein, Prome and Henzada being the districts which suffered most severely.
In Upper Burma the disease was chiefly confined to the Katha District, where
buffaloes used for the extraction of timber suffered equally with plough-cattle.
The number of animals inoculated was 64,824, a figure which reflects great
credit on Deputy Superintendent Bhagwan Singh, and the Inspectors and
Veterinary Assistants employed in this work. Of the animals inoculated only
838, or a little over one per cent., died. The heavy losses to which an outbreak
of this description exposes the cultivator, its effect in retarding the spread of
cultivation and in increasing the price of plough-cattle need no emphasizing.
Excellent rules have been framed for the prevention of these diseases, and in some
districts the rules are well observed, but their evasion by just a few recalcitrant
cattle-owners largely nullifies their good effect. There is the usual complaint that
the offenders come largely from the ranks of owners in the neighbourhood of
Rangoon and other large towns who breed large herds for the sale of milk. These
herds, which not only spread diseases but also damage roads, embankments and
cultivation and also give rise to insanitary conditions in towns and villages,
constitute a difficult problem, a solution of which is still to seek. In the Resolution
on the previous year's Report it was stated that the matter had been recently
investigated by the Stock-breeding Committee, whose recommendations were under
the consideration of the Local Government. The Lieutenant-Governor regrets
that great pressure of work in the Secretariat has prevented any action being
taken on those recommendations up to the present. His Honour will see that
there is no further avoidable delay in taking action on them.
2. The schools at Insein and Taunggyi were attended by the usual number of
scholarship-holders, who hope to qualify for appointment as Veterinary Assistants.
The selection of the scholarship-holders is no easy matter. Unless they have
imbibed a reasonable amount of book knowledge they are unable to profit by the
lectures, while unless they come from the agricultural class they often lack the
necessary aptitude for handling animals. Caution will be needed to prevent the
Veterinary Department being looked upon as a happy hunting-ground for holders
of a VIIth standard Certificate, who can find no better market for that now
somewhat depreciated qualification.