PART II.—PROVINCIAL REPORT.
III.—CATTLE DISEASE—INVESTIGATION AND PREVENTION.
Information
collected.
438. Under this heading but little actual progress has been made by the
Civil Veterinary Department. Much information has been collected, but it has
not as yet been tabulated.
439. The following extracts from the report of the Superintendent, North-
Western Provinces and Oudh, will show the investigations made :—
From reports submitted by district authorities during the last six months of the year
15 districts were affected with rinderpest, seven with foot-and-mouth disease and five with
both. In some instances, I fear, the disease has hardly been correctly diagnosed; reports
occasionally showing that all cases of rinderpest had recovered, while in others foot-and-
mouth disease proved fatal in the majority of instances, the former being as well known
for its fatality as the latter for its innocuous nature. This is to be expected until we obtain
an efficient subordinate staff throughout the Province.
In many cases disease seems to have been communicated by affected bullocks belonging
to carts, etc., left ill in villages or on the roadside ; in others, from the mingling of tainted
herds with healthy animals on the common pasture. On more than a few occasions I fear
disease has been purposely propagated by Chamars and other low caste people with a view
to obtain hides. As far as I can ascertain, the Province seems fairly clear from anthrax, both
true and symptomatic. Only three districts have reported its existence; nowhere during
my cold weather tour could I find cases of either. The description of diseases from which
cattle had suffered invariably pointed to rinderpest or foot-and-mouth; contagious pleuro-
pneumonia too seems to be absent. This is, however, an insidious disease not very easy of
diagnosis, more particularly in the earlier stages; so cases may have easily passed undetected
the illness being ascribed to ordinary pneumonia. Tuberculosis does not seem common
though in some instances I noticed cases of debility that looked much like wasters. An in-
spection of the abattoirs at our large military stations would, however, demonstrate the absence
or otherwise of the disease. Parturient apoplexy and mammitis seem rare, though I have
heard of cases. Diseases of the digestive organs appear to be the most prevalent of all. These
are probably due to dietetic errors and the dry fibrous nature of the food at one period of the
year, and its innutritious watery character at another. For instance, during the hot weather,
when everything is parched and dry, the little grazing obtainable is composed of coarse
fibrous stocks, which irritate the intestinal canal and produce diarrhœa, dysentery and kindred
diseases. Almost immediately on the break of the rains, the face of the country is covered
with a luxuriant crop of grasses which contain an enormous percentage of water ; being
tender and juicy they are eaten with avidity : the results are hoven, plenalvia and ailments
of a similar character. Imported European cattle are more liable to contract rinderpest and
other contagious diseases than indigenous animals; worse still, they transmit this tendency
to their produce. The pure countrybred seems to have acquired a certain hereditary immunity
from such affections, and even when attacked, frequently recovers from the more deadly forms.
The same fact has been noticed in the cattle inhabiting the Russian Steppes, where rinderpest is
enzootic. Buffaloes, natives appear to believe, are liable to all the forms of disease from which
cattle suffer, but in a less degree. Colonel Hallen, whom I consulted on this subject, was of
opinion that the powers of resistance of the buffalo to contagion, were very little if at all
greater than those of ordinary cattle. Amongst horses, surra of late years appears to have
caused more loss than any other disease. During September and October it was rife on the
dâk line between Saharanpur and Rajpur; as usual every case attacked proved fatal. As far
as I could ascertain, the disease began in chowkis situated in the Mohund Pass the animals
who succumbed elsewhere being transfers from that part of the line. The ponies were watered
from stagnant pools and grazed on low-lying land in the neighbourhood, from which also grass
was cut for them. Hence, in all probability, came the virus of the disease.
440. The Superintendent, South Punjab, reports that information is receiv-
ed regularly as to cattle-disease, and that an abstract is made and forwarded to
the Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Punjab, monthly. A copy
should be submitted to this office for transmission to the Assistant to the In-
spector-General, and steps will be taken to cause this return to be furnished.
441. The Superintendent, North Punjab, reports :—
I regret to say that during the official year under report I have absolutely had no time
at my disposal to investigate outbreaks of cattle-disease, but since I took over charge of this
office a system has been started by which each Deputy Commissioner sends, monthly a report
to me on any outbreak of cattle-disease in his district, giving the tehsils and villages infected
number of animals attacked, number recovered and number died.