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surgeons by one each and some of the boards are desirous to increase the
number of staff during the current year, but at the same time I cannot
refrain to mention that the district board of Azamgarh were thinking of
reducing their veterinary assistant surgeons by two and if this was allowed
the animal population in the district would have been left entirely with-
out provision of veterinary help during the course of epidemic. The
matter has been postponed for six months after which a final declaration
would be made by the board.
65. During the year under report three veterinary inspectors retired
and one veterinary assistant surgeon died.
V.—EXPENDITURE OF THE DEPARTMENT.
See table
XIVA.
66. The cost of the department according to the statement furnished
by the Pay and Accounts Officer, Agriculture, Veterinary departments,
etc , is Rs. 2,26,557 as against Rs. 3,17,251 for the previous year.
VI.—GENERAL REMARKS.
67. It will be seen from the annual report of this department that
useful work has been carried out during the year and reflects credit on all,
when the inadequate staff, both technical and non-technical, are taken into
account with the large area they have to control.
68. Again, I feel it my duty before closing this report to point out
to Government the urgent necessity of taking early steps to increase the
staff of the department. It has been clearly demonstrated during the
year under report what a hopeless position we are in when confronted by
serious epidemics on a large scale due to the paucity of the exisiting staff.
During the surra and rinderpest outbreaks the existing staff has been
worked to the limit and I am quite sure that if we had been in a
position, backed by an adequate staff, plentiful supply of serum and
proper means of segregation, the suppression of the outbreaks would have
taken a shorter time and we should have been in a position to keep the
disease located to definite areas.
69. The present system of segregation now in force under the
Glanders and Farcy Act as it applied to glanders and surra, is in every
way insufficient and more drastic rules should be framed and brought
into force. The present system in regard to glanders is usually found
workable in the small isolated outbreaks, but in the case of an outbreak
of surra or a large outbreak of glanders it is in every way inadequate,
The procedure at present in force in the case of surra is as follows :—
When a veterinary assistant surgeon receives an outbreak report of
surra or finds a case while on tour or brought to his hospital for treatment,
he at once orders the owner of the suspected animal to keep it isolated
and as far away as possible from the other animals of the place. While
he submits smears for microscopic examination. These orders are fre-
quently disregarded by the owner who in the night takes away the
suspected case from the segregatien camp and treks off to some other
part of the district, spreading the disease along the route. This happens
even when the village chaukidar or other persons are put in charge and
by the time he can be track ted and prosecuted the disease spreads far and
wide. I would suggest that in the districts where surra is of a yearly
occurrence, a segregation camp should be opened as an experimental
measure. The animal should if possible, be put under police guard.