8
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE IMPL. INST. OF VETY. RESEARCH,
V.— RESEARCH.
The arrangement by which the Research staff of the Institute is
organised into three sections of Pathology, Serology, and Protozoology
was continued throughout the year, although, owing to the continued
absence on leave of Mr. Cooper, official sanction to this arrangement
had not been received when the year closed.
The anticipated appointment of a Protozoologist has not yet taken
place, so that the section of Protozoology is still not properly organised,
but it may be considered that the sections of Pathology and Serology,
although still requiring one or more junior officers to complete them, were
at work throughout the year in the form which has been laid down for
them in the reorganisation scheme for the research staff of the Institute.
That the officers concerned took full advantage of the opportunities
offered to them is confirmed by the Sectional reports and the list of
publications which is printed below.
In the Serology Section Mr. Haddow devoted the major portion of
his time to work in connection with Rinderpest, which is still the
most important disease condition with which Veterinary Departments
in India have to deal. As will be seen from his report, a very
satisfactory commencement has been made in the immunisation of
calves with goat virus alone, and it seems that, in those places where
the animals can be treated at the optimum age, this will be the
method of choice in future, for it is cheap and easy to apply, and the
indications are that, at least in those cases in which a reaction is
obtained, the immunity conferred will be durable.
The question of the fractionisation and concentration of anti-rinder-
pest serum has also been studied intensively during the year, and
although the work has not yet proceeded sufficiently far to be a com-
mercial proposition, it is anticipated that we shall soon be in a position
to improve a low potency serum to such an extent that discarding will
be avoided, and to raise the potency of a normal serum to that which is
required for the immunisation of very susceptible animals, or as a
curative agent.
Other conditions, with which Mr. Haddow was concerned during
the year, were equine abortion at the Coleyana stud and blindness in
calves at the Military Dairy Farm, Quetta, and it is hoped that, as a
result of the greater amount of time which it has been possible to devote
to the study of these conditions of great economic importance, better
methods of prevention may soon become available.
During the year Captain Datta had the satisfaction of seeing his
findings in connection with the etiology of Bovine Nasal Granuloma,
recorded in last year's report, confirmed in at least three other parts of
India, and there now seems to be no room for doubt that this condition
is in reality a Nasal Schistosomiasis.
Two other conditions which were studied intensively in the Pathology
Section were a peculiar form of liver cirrhosis and the well-known
disease known as Bursati, both of which are met with in horses in this
country. The former has defied elucidation for many years, but Captain
Datta has shown that this also is due to infection with another species