No. 5883-R.
GOVERNMENT OP BIHAR AND ORISSA.
REVENUE DEPARTMENT.
AGRICULTURAL BRANCH.
The 30th August 1915.
RESOLUTION.
READ—
The Report of the Civil Veterinary Department of Bihar and Orissa for the year
1914-15 with a review thereon by the Director of Agriculture.
Mr. D. Quinlan held charge of the Department throughout the year except
for the period from the 9th April to the 13th Septemher 1914, during which
he was on leave and Mr. W. A. Pool acted as Superintendent. Mr. Pool re-
mained in the province as a Supernumerary officer till the 27th October 1914
when he was transferred to Madras. Messrs. Quinlan and Pool spent 329
days on tour during which they inspected hospitals and dispensaries, attended
cattle fairs and shows, and investigated various outbreaks of cattle disease,
including a serious outbreak of rinderpest in the district of Champaran, the final
report on which is still awaited by Government.
2. The scheme for the reorganisation of the Department has received fur-
ther consideration during the year, and the terms of pay and allowances pro-
posed for Veterinary Assistants have recently been revised with a view to
encouraging recruitment of a better class of men. The revised proposals in-
volve additional expense to the local bodies, who are therefore being consulted
again before submission of the scheme to the Government of India. The rates
now proposed, combined with the transfer of the training ground from Bel-
gachia to Allahabad, in the event of the establishment of a Veterinary College
there, will, it is believed, ensure an adequate flow of recruits of the right
class, which the present arrangements do not provide.
3. The arrangements for reporting outbreaks of cattle disease showed
marked improvement in the majority of the districts, thanks to the assistance
rendered by the District officers and the Superintendents of Police concerned,
but the Lieutenant-Governor in Council learns with regret that the local police
in certain districts, notahly in Champaran, have apparently failed to realise
their responsibility in the matter.
4. The chief causes of cattle mortality were rinderpest and Hæmmor-
rhagic Septicæmia, of which the former alone accounted for more than three-
fourths of the total number of deaths. The high proportion is mainly due to
a particularly virulent epidemic which broke out in the early part of the
year among the herds grazing in the Nepal jungles, whence it spread among
the cattle of the Bettiah subdivision of Champaran. The scheme for inocula-
tion against Hæmmorrhagic Septicæmia through the agency of locally trained
inoculators, inaugurated in the Ranchi district two years ago, was further
applied during the year to rinderpest and a fair measure of success was
obtained. It was also extended to a small area in the north of the Manbhum
district. As yet the scheme is scarcely out of the experimental stage, but His
Honour in Council trusts that with the adequate co-operation of the local
officers and a continuance of the personal interest taken in the work by the
local missionaries, it may prove a complete success and justify its extension
to other parts of the province.
5. The increase from 53,109 to 85,688 in the number of inoculations
performed by the regular staff reflects great credit on the Department and
indicates that the prejudice against inoculation tends to weaken and disappear,
as its advantages are brought home to the people by practical experience.