VETERINARY SCHOOL), BURMA, FOR THE YEAR ENDED THE 31ST MARCH
1918.
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The average number of days spent on tour by Veterinary Assistants in
Lower Burma was 234.2 and 189.6 in Upper Burma. They visited 16,921
villages in Lower and 15,122 in Upper Burma.
The Assistants in Lower Burma treated 34,411 animals and in Upper Burma
37,156.
VI.—GENERAL REMARKS.
13. Cattle Disease.—During the last quarter of the year some articles
appeared in the local press drawing attention to serious outbreaks of rinderpest
in the vicinity of Rangoon and Insein. The cattle chiefly affected were those
owned by Natives of India engaged in supplying milk, carting, or simply collecting
cattle for sale. To deal effectively with a disease of such a contagious and
dangerous nature as rinderpest, more particularly when it occurs among cattle
owned by Indians in Burma, for many reasons presents an especially difficult
problem.
The large herds owned by them, as regards fodder to all intents and purposes
depend on what they can pick up on waste lands, in scrub jungle, etc. It is quite
exceptional to find any provision made to supplement this. That the fare is very
meagre in the dry season is evidenced by the wretched condition of such stock.
Notwithstanding the fact that they are set adrift between 6 and 6-30 a.m. and return
towards dusk few obtain a full meal. In many places water is a great difficulty.
There may be but one source, a pond or dammed up stream, and the only thing
to recommend it is that it is liquid or semi so. As herds are generally owned
by a few individuals, who may or may not keep a servant or two, help during an
outbreak is not forthcoming.
Much experience has proved it is waste of time putting up sheds and
segregating sick, recovering or suspected cases. I can never remember on a
second visit finding any animals except those unable to move in such places.
The owners are unable to attend to their wants. They frequently neglect to
bury carcases. Owing to the conditions under which owners live and keep these
herds, i.e. scattered about in tès or barrack-like huts in areas usually away
from villages, Burmese headmen are not in touch with these men. Information
of existence of disease is always suppressed until concealment is no longer
possible, and I fear headmen who know beforehand do not exert themselves until
they see probable trouble ahead. For an ordinary individual to obtain any
reliable information is quite out of the question—ask who he may of the people
in these tès or bustis. Other difficulties, when disease appears, are ever
present, e,g. common business of selling animals from infected herds at low
figures to be taken elsewhere to start fresh centres, unrestricted movements of
cattle owing to lack of fodder or having only one water-supply, intentional
removal by some owners to other localities whenever measures to deal with
disease are anticipated, great difficulty in obtaining consent to serum injection
even when a man like Deputy Superintendent Bhagwan Singh is placed on
this duty and offers to perform the operation himself and only allow their
own caste-men to hold cattle, and finally the fact that the cattle are very
little handled and are not provided with any means of restraint. The animals are
owned by all castes and creeds—Sikhs, Punjabi-Mahomedans, Mahomedans
from United Provinces and Chittagong, Hindus of all sects from United Provinces,
Ooriyahs, Tamils, etc. In Upper Burma and Shan States many of the owners are
Gurkhas.
Every year we see these herds increasing in number and more areas being
occupied. Burmans are by no means all that can be desired in the matter of help
in dealing with contagious diseases. They at times give a good deal of trouble.
The Burman, however, lives in villages, his cattle are well handled and tended.
Only sufficient animals to carry on work required by owners are maintained.
Village officials are in touch and can help. In many places the people are really
keen and willing to do their best in affording assistance.
In days gone by, parts of this province have had practical demonstration of
the ravages this disease is capable of inflicting when inadequate measures are
taken to prevent its spread. I fear absence of such outbreaks in recent years,
coupled with the fact that we get accustomed to dealing with more or less localized
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