20
Ordinary parasites are constantly met with, and now and again flukes. This year I
came upon a very bad case, there must have been quite two hundred parasites in the liver,
which organ was much enlarged.
Flies.
Like yourself I have failed to detect anything like the Surra Hæmatozoon in jungle
flies, and I have examined a very great number. They were just coming out in myriads
when I visited the jungle.
There is a species of fly which, from the accounts of its bite, I should say, is capable of
inoculating healthy animals, i. e., granting Surra cases were mixed amongst healthy animals..
From the accounts of the fly and the peculiar appearance of the bite, I think, it is similar to
or identical with the fly met with at Thandaung in the Karen and Binjiji in the Shan Hills.
This fly is a little larger than the ordinary house fly, but varies in size; its body is yellowish
in colour, the legs being bent on themselves. At the point where this fly bites, a small extra-
vasation of blood appears just under the skin, which shortly after presents the appearance of
a blood bleb, such as follows a contused wound.
I will examine the flies in one or two localities I know, but they are so terribly
unhealthy, that one is quickly driven out by one's servants being rolled over with fever.
We are getting some thunderstorms and this is the time when I am sure that the ani¬
mals contract the disease ; the water is at its very worst and is stirred up with all manner of
filth. The flies at this time are present in great numbers.
One thing about the Surra being the same as the South African malady, is that wild
animals do not appear to die of it; surely they cannot be all immune. Animals like the Gaur
(Indian bison), Tsaing, etc., would be sure to catch it, but they never do, from all I can learn.
Rinderpest, foot-and-mouth disease they do get, yet these animals live in heavy jungle where
the flies are so annoying to them that they have to go in the open to escape.
Again, consider those cases that occurred amongst mules working between the Commis-
sariat Lines and the shore at Mandalay. There is no jungle there and horse flies were not
troublesome. At that time there were no cases of Surra in Mandalay, at least that we knew
of. I also lost two or three animals belonging to the Military Police, and these had never left
the station during the season.
I am informed that a great deal of Surra prevails between Taung-gyi and Keng-tung.
There is a considerable area of swampy country about, and flies are very troublesome while
passing through forest tracts.
As Military Police ponies have to go to unhealthy outposts, I have recommended that
animals posted after 15th March should be allowed to remain at such places throughout the
season. It is a pity to relieve the ponies every time the men are changed, for it often means
that most of the ponies in a Battalion become infected instead of a few.
SURRA OUTBREAK AT RANGOON.
Veterinary Captain Evans narrated the following account of an outbreak of Surra in a
private stable in Rangoon during his recent visit on deputation to Muktesar. As it is of such
importance to owners of equines in many districts of. India, where the disease is enzootic, I
have added it to this officer's notes on Surra previously recorded.
On September 17th, 1896, an outbreak of Surra occurred in the cantonment, among the
horses belonging to a civilian ; no case had been observed during the previous seven years in
Rangoon, with the exception of two or three animals which arrived from Upper Burma with
the disease. In these the malady was speedily diagnosed and the ponies destroyed.
The animals kept by the above gentleman consisted of selected country-breds, Burman
ponies and one Arab. The stables were pucca built and the best in that part of Burma, being
situated on high ground, in an open compound, seven and-a-half acres in extent, and sur-
rounded by a stone wall. The grass supplied to the animals was specially brought in from
high ground some five miles distant, where it had been procured for some years past. The
water was obtained from a pucca well in the compound. The grain ' crushed food' was the
same as that supplied to most stables in the station and procured from Calcutta.
The stable containing the Burmans and Arab were situated on the south side of the
paddock, while the country-breds were kept in a stable on the north side and in close proxi-
mity to the adjoining compound, only a road intervening Eight animals died or had to be
destroyed within 14 days on account of having contracted Surra, and veterinary surgeons and
owner were nonplused as to how the animals could possibly have contracted the disease. Just
at that time a break occurred in the rains, and, as always happens, under such circumstances,
flies were very numerous and aggressive. A few days later it came to notice that a pony was
ill in the adjoining compound. On microscopical examination of its blood the Surra Hæma-
tozoon was found to be teeming. This animal received green grass as fodder, from anywhere
the grass cutter could most easily obtain it. As all the animals with the exception of the
Arab were allowed to run free in the compound, it is more than probable, therefore, that flies
were the means by which the contagium of Surra was carried.
This outbreak only tends to emphasise the importance of recognising Surra at the first
possible moment, in order that the subjects may be destroyed forthwith, and so do away with
a focus for the dissemination of the disease by flies.