NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
FOR THE YEAR ENDING THE 31ST MARCH 1938.
15
Lessees were inoculated. During the year only two elephants died of
anthrax, and neither had been inoculated.
To countries outside Burma 5,046 doses of vaccine were supplied
included in this being a small lot for use in camels. Now that anthrax
spore vaccine is being manufactured at Muktesar it is unlikely that there
will be any further demand for our vaccine in India.
(3) Kumri.—The
investigation of the problem of Kumri was
continued but beyond being unable to confirm the findings of some
other workers, negative results only can be recorded. For purposes of
study and investigation seventeen horses affected with Kumri were
destroyed. Repeated attempts to transmit the disease to other animals,
including the intracerebral injection of horses, rabbits and mice with
brain and spinal cord, were unsuccessful. Schistosomes have never
been found in horses affected with Kumri, and the administration of
tartar emetic and antimosan in no case influenced the progress of the
disease. No lesions have been found in the liver or in any organ other
than the central nervous system, in which they are usually located in
the lumbar area, though they may also be occasionally found in other
regions. The lesion appears to be a softening and disintegration of the
anterior horn of the grey matter with some accompanying sclerosis in
parts of the white matter.
Biochemical analysis of 21 samples of blood from Kumri horses
indicated a slightly increased concentration of chlorides, a somewhat
more increased concentration of glucose, and normal amounts of
inorganic phosphates, non-protein nitrogen, and calcium.
(4) Dry Coat in Horses.—As noted in previous reports dry coated
horses can still be worked and raced, so owners will not part with them
at prices within our reach. For that reason very little work has been
done on this disease. Two cases were destroyed and on post mortem
no significant anatomical changes were seen. Biochemical analysis
of six samples of blood from these two horses showed no deviation
from the normal in respect of chlorides, inorganic phosphates, non-
protein nitrogen and calcium.
(5) Parasitology.—Twelve endo and 299 ecto-parasites were iden-
tified and classified.
(6) Biochemistry.—Analyses were made of blood of normal horses,
and of horses suffering from Kumri and dry coat. These have been
briefly referred to in the sections dealing with these diseases.
(7) Diseases of Elephants.—In Burma elephants employed on teak
extraction are kept in groups of about seven, usually in places not easily
reached- This makes investigation of disease in these animals a matter
of considerable difficulty. In January Messrs. The Bombay Burmah
Trading Corporation, Limited, made sixteen elephants available in a
camp in the Pyinmana District within easy reach of the railway line.
Twenty-nine elephants, examined in a forest in Upper Burma, were
16
REPORT OF THE CIVIL VETERINARY DEPARTMENT, BURMA,
given experimental medical or surgical treatments. The results so far
obtained suggest that many of our ideas on the treatment of diseases of
elephants require considerable revision. The work cannot at present
be summarized but this will be done at a later stage and will be fully
reported on.
RESEARCH INSTRUCTION.
3. Mr. F. Lawkeen Swoadi, Veterinary Officer, Department of Agri-
culture and Fisheries, Bangkok, Siam, and two Siamese students—Nai P.
Uttamayodhin and Nai Ratana Unyawongs—attended a month's course
in laboratory methods, with special reference to the preparation and
immunization of cattle with Rinderpest Desiccated Goat Spleen Vaccine.
GENERAL.
4. (1) Additional land for Research.—Proposals submitted to Govern-
ment for an additional area of land adjoining the laboratory were
approved and acquisition proceedings initiated.
(2) For the Health Week held in the Jubilee Hall in December 1937,
an exhibit was put up which attracted a great deal of attention.
Exhibits were also put up for the Agriculture and Cattle Show held at
Pyawbwe in February 1938, and for the Rural Reconstruction Exhibiton
held at Yemon, Hlègu Township, Insein District, in November 1937.
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS TO THE LABORATORY.
5. His Excellency the Governor visited the Laboratory on the 14th
June 1937.
The Hon'ble Minister for Forests visited the Laboratary on the 13th
November 1937.
CHAPTER VI—STOCK BREEDING.
The charge of work on animal husbandry was transferred from the
Agricultural Department to the Veterinary Department on September
9th, 1937, by order of the Ministry of Forests.
Up to the present work on Animal Husbandry has been limited to
the maintenance of a small herd of selected Burmese cattle for breeding
purposes and their multiplication on a farm at Tatkôn, Yamèthin
District.
The area of this land is 49 acres and the numbers of the animals in
the herd including calves at the time of taking over charge were :—
Cows with Calves
Calves
Dry Cows
Heifers
Young bulls
Stud Bulls
Bullocks
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Total
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
32
32
23
25
40
3
1
156
FOR THE YEAR ENDING THE 31ST MARCH 1938.
17
These animals are partly maintained by artificial feeding and the
conditions are not ideal for the production of healthy well developed stud
animals for future stock improvement schemes. The extension of this
farm at Tatkôn by the acquisition of an adjoining 110 acres of land is
under consideration.
A comprehensive scheme was submitted to Government for
developing cattle breeding and supplying bulls of the Burmese breed
in the future for distribution to cultivators for improvement of village
herds. After a survey of the greater part of the cattle breeding area of
Central Burma, a site was selected for a cattle farm in the Yamèthin
District on the foothills of the Pegu Yomas, where good soil, a good
water supply, and opportunities for extension at a reasonable cost exist.
This scheme is at present under consideration.
The staff employed at the Tatkôn Cattle Breeding farm consisted of
one Burman stockman and six labourers.
Assistance in regard to clerical work and maintenance of breeding
records was given by the Officer-in-charge of the Government Agricul-
tural Farm adjoining who also supplies green fodder from 20 acres of
the Agricultural Farm reserved for this purpose.
The total cost of this Government cattle breeding farm during
1937-38 was Rs. 2,318.
CHAPTER VII.—SUMMARY AND RECOMMEN-
DATIONS.
Total Animal Mortality.—During 1937-38 the total mortality in
animals from all causes was 93,164, a decrease of 24,240 on the
previous year's total of 117,404.
This represents a mortality of 1.5 per cent which indicates that only
a small percentage of the deaths in animals in the Province are yet
being recorded.
Deaths from contagious diseases are fairly accurately reported as
the system of supervision and recording by the Veterinary staff and the
pressure being put on the headmen and villagers to record and report
suspicious deaths, is now having the desired effect in the plains, but in
the hill areas the recording of mortality, even from contagious diseases,
is still very inefficient.
Contagious Diseases.—Deaths from all contagious diseases during
the year totalled 16,118. The corresponding figure for 1936-37 was
26,533. There was, therefore, a decrease in mortality during the year
under report of 20,345.
Rinderpest.—A feature of the outbreaks of Rinderpest in 1937-38
was the relatively small mortality in each outbreak compared with
previous years. This was due to the fact that a large number of
18
REPORT OF THE CIVIL VETERINARY DEPARTMENT, BURMA,
animals have been protected by goat spleen vaccination in the last two
years. In many instances only those animals, which for reasons of
work or otherwise, escaped the inoculation when carried out as a
prophylactic in the absence of the disease, succumbed to natural
infection in an outbreak occurring subsequently.
Lower Burma continued to be relatively free from this disease. In
Upper Burma the heaviest mortality occurred in Yamèthin and Toungoo
Districts on the Mandalay trunk road and in Myingyan and Meiktila on
the Thazi-Myingyan main road.
Anthrax.—Vaccination
against this disease has been continued
successfully during the year. The protection of working elephants
against this disease has reduced the incidence of the disease in these
animals practically to zero and as most of the animals in work are now
inoculated annually, the local reactions which were noted during the
early years of vaccination, have now ceased to give any cause for
apprehension. The immunity produced is efficient as indicated by
the fact that no animals vaccinated in the previous 12 months have
contracted the disease.
Outbreaks occurred in many districts in cattle and buffaloes, causing
a total mortality of 825. Vaccination was employed in outbreak areas
as a prophylactic with successfull results.
Hæmorrhagic Septicæemia.—This disease has continued to give
trouble in the Delta and Maritime districts and more extensive protection
will require to be given by vaccination in the future when staff is
available for this work.
Black Quarter.—The incidence of this disease was very low during
the year. The total deaths for the Province were 336. Two districts
only were infected.
Surra.—This disease, although enzootic throughout the greater part
of Burma and normally present in the blood of bovines, does not
usually give rise to outbreaks in equines except in the hill areas.
During the year under report serious outbreaks of the disease were
reported from one district only, Pakôkku, with a mortality of 40 animals
(equines).
Strangles.—One case of this disease from the Pakôkku District was
recorded during the year.
Epizootic Lymphangitis.—No cases recorded.
Glanders.—This disease occurred in localized outbreaks in Myitkyina,
Insein and Maymyo, giving rise to ten cases, which were destroyed on
test or on clinical symptoms. It is proposed during the coming year
to introduce systematic testing of a percentage of animals employed in
municipalities at regular intervals and arrangements for identifying the
animals which have passed the test, by means of a sealed wire around
the neck, are already in progress.
FOR THE YEAR ENDING THE 31ST MARCH 1938.
19
General Remarks on Disease Control.—The results of the inoculation
campaign against Rinderpest with Goat Vaccine have now reached a
stage when it is possible to estimate the value of the vaccine as an
immunizing agent, the probable extent of its application in the districts
in the future and the difficulties which the Department will be faced
with in carrying out inoculations.
The inoculations carried out during the last two years in clean and
outbreak areas have had the effect of reducing the mortality in 1937-38
to 11,161 from 31,071 in the previous year. The graph shown in
Appendix A of the Annual Report indicates that since 1930-31 there
has been a decided tendency for the disease to show a recrudescence
similar to that shown in the years 1908-09 to 1910-11, 1916-17 to
1919-20 and 1924-25 to 1925-26. The work of control of the Depart-
ment, assisted very materially by vaccination with Goat Vaccine, has
depressed the curve due to have reached its peak about 1936 and
prevented the disease from assuming the proportions shown in the
graph in previous periods of periodic recrudescence.
Reference to the mortality figures for the various Veterinary Circles
shows that in the two Circles where Cattle Breeding is not generally
practised and in which cattle are mostly purchased for cultivation work
(South-Eastern Circle Tenasserim and South-Western Circle, Irrawaddy)
the prevention of the introduction of diseases into the Circles as far as
has been possible, together with the general immunization of animals by
vaccination, has reduced the incidence of disease in these Circles during
the year to a few sporadic outbreaks involving very little mortality.
In Upper Burma where susceptible young stock are constantly being
bred, where good roads favour cattle movements in herds and in carts
and where there is a continuous introduction of cattle from infected
trans-frontier areas with imperfect supervision at importation, the
results of the inoculation work have not been so satisfactory. Cattle in
Upper Burma are more difficult to collect for inoculation owing to larger
numbers of animals in the herds and also to the fact that a considerable
proportion of all village herds are untrained young stock and wild cows.
In consequence of this and the general apathy of owners, the percentage
of cattle which can be inoculated in the herd may vary from 20 per
cent to 75 per cent.
As their percentage rises these unvaccinated cattle progressively
reduce the value of the protection given to the herd by artificial
immunization and they have been the cause of frequent recrudescence
of the disease in the Yamèthin, Meiktila, and Toungoo Districts during
1937-38. Under present rules it is only possible to insist on immuniza-
tion of all animals in the affected herd in the presence of an actual
outbreak and it is then too late to prevent spread of infection as the
staff is unable at present to cope with all demands for inoculations when
the disease is widespread.
20
REPORT OF THE CIVIL VETERINARY DEPARTMENT, BURMA,
The free movement of non-immunized cattle, either in herds going
to markets from trans-frontier areas (Imported trade cattle) or from
adjoining districts, the general use of bullocks in carts for inter-township
or district trade (carting of produce or attendance at bazaars by bazaar
sellers) and the movements of large masses of Indian owned milk cattle
from monsoon to dry weather pastures and vice versa, give unlimited
opportunities for the spread of Rinderpest and its persistence in areas
of Central Burma. This results in the dry zone being not only an area
for the breeding of cattle but also a reservoir for those contagious
diseases which are readily transmissible by contact (Rinderpest and
Foot-and-Mouth disease).
Owing to the very high susceptibility of the buffalo to Rinderpest and
the more severe reaction developed on vaccination, these animals
introduce a very serious problem in eradication or control of Rinderpest.
The average cattle mortality in outbreaks of Rinderpest amongst non-
inoculated herds rarely exceeds 20 per cent and the deaths from vaccina-
tion are under ¼ per cent. In buffaloes the average mortality is 85 per
cent in natural outbreaks and average 4 per cent on vaccination. The
difficulties of obtaining 100 per cent vaccinations in a herd noted
previously in connection with cattle are accentuated in the case of
buffaloes and it is this animal which has in certain areas during the
last 18 months created an unfavourable impression in the minds of
villagers against Rinderpest vaccination and interfered very considerably
with the campaign of preventive inoculation in clean areas.
Further Research work on this problem of immunization of buffaloes
against Rinderpest is essential but it has not been yet possible owing to
lack of a sufficient area of land at the Veterinary Research Laboratory,
Insein.
Experiments with these animals under stable conditions had to be
discarded as deaths in controls resulted from the unnatural conditions
of confinement. The acquisition of an additional area of land adjoin-
ing the Laboratory at Insein for work on buffaloes has been delayed
for many months owing to difficulties in connection with land acquisi-
tion. When this land is eventually placed at the disposal of the
Research Laboratory, the work will be initiated.
The problem of movements of susceptible cattle and buffaloes in
relation to the prevention and control of contagious diseases, particularly
Rinderpest, is one which is difficult, if not impossible to solve under
present conditions. Until the benefits of immunization and the danger
of cattle movements in infected areas are more widely understood by
the cattle owners and until these cattle owners voluntarily co-operate with
the Department, no control measures can be expected to meet with
complete success.
This co-operation is more readily given under existing conditions
by Burman than by Indian cattle owners, and to deal with this latter
FOR THE YEAR ENDING THE 31ST MARCH 1938.
21
group of owners it may be necessary in the near future to introduce
legislation with a view to reduce the numbers of surplus or useless cattle
which are now maintained in many areas around the larger towns and
along railways. Proposals in this connection will be submitted to
Government during next year.
On the facts recorded above it will be apparent that more vigorous
action will be required in the future if control and eradication of
preventable contagious diseases in Upper Burma is to be made efficient
and this action will involve new legislation and amendment of rules
under existing Acts.
These proposals may be briefly summarized as follows :—
(1) Compulsory protective inoculation of all susceptible animals
in outbreak areas, not limited to village-tracts as at present, under
amended " Contagious Diseases of Animals (Villages) Rules, 1936."
(2) Compulsory protective inoculation of all susceptible animals
on introduction into Burma from adjoining territories by rules framed
under the " Livestock Importation Act " and the permanent marking of
inoculated animals.
(3) Compulsory protective inoculation and permanent marking of
all cart bullocks employed in inter-township trade in Burma under
amended " Contagious Diseases of Animals (Villages) Rules, 1936."
(4) Protective vaccination of herds of cattle before movement to
hot weather grazing areas under amended " Contagious Diseases of
Animals (Villages) Rules, 1936."
(5) Progressive reduction of numbers of surplus cattle of milking
breeds by means of new legislation.
Foot-and-Mouth disease continues to cause considerable trouble in
many areas at the commencement of the ploughing season. This
disease is seasonal in its appearance. Natural attacks give rise to a
fleeting immunity in outbreaks in this country owing probably to the
multiplicity of strains of the virus.
The control of this disease is impossible under conditions prevailing
in this country where free unrestricted movements of cattle continue
throughout the year even in outbreak areas. Stoppage of these move-
ments could not be made effective without interfering with the
maintenance of law and order and all that can be done is to slow down
the spread in a herd by segregation of sick and incontact animals and
medicinal treatment of cases.
This slowing down of the spread in the herd has the obvious dis-
advantage of prolonging the outbreak and thus increasing the risk of
spread of infection to surrounding areas. In a disease like Foot-and-
Mouth, where transmission is so easy, the action in outbreaks taken in
this country up to date has been a waste of the time of staff and the
results have not justified the expenditure involved. Even in England-
22
REPORT OF THE CIVIL VETERINARY DEPARTMENT, BURMA,
and South Africa where "stand still" orders, strict isolation, and
slaughter of all animals in outbreaks, are the chief weapons used in
prevention and can be effectively imposed, the disease when introduced
gives rise to widespread outbreaks.
It is now some years since details were available to this Department
on the control measures adopted in Rhodesia with considerable success.
This method involves the preparation of a vaccine which produces a
mild attack of the disease and a short period (about six months)
immunity on being sprayed into the nostril of the animal. Lack of
isolation facilities at the Veterinary Research Laboratory, Insein, for
working with this disease simultaneously with the production of
Rinderpest, Anthrax, and other vaccines and the risk of having these
products contaminated with Foot-and-Mouth virus has prevented
progress on this vaccine up to date. It was also recognized that the
staff available for inoculation was insufficient for undertaking Foot-and-
Mouth prophylactic inoculation in addition to the other diseases for
which vaccines are provided. When these difficulties are removed by
the allocation of more funds for staff and Laboratory buildings by
Government, this work will be proceeded with, but until then it is felt
that Research work on Foot-and-Mouth cannot be safely undertaken.
The Department has now at its disposal the means of giving an
efficient protection by vaccination against the following diseases :—
Rinderpest, Anthrax, Black Quarter, Hæmorrhagic Septicæmia, and
given powers for more general vaccinations and the necessary staff for
carrying out the work of immunization annually, can prevent the occur-
rence of these contagious diseases in epizootic form and further reduce
the present decreased mortality and stock in Burma from these more
dangerous diseases.
PROPOSALS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES.
Staff.—It will be noted that frequent reference has had to be made
in this report to the shortage of staff interfering with the duties of the
Department. Proposals for staff increases in the Subordinate Service
have been under submission to Government during the year and until
these proposals have been favourably considered, sanctioned, and given
effect to, it will not be possible for the Department to continue to
develop or to give that assistance to the cultivator and cattle owner
which he now frequently demands. The total expenditure on this
Department is very small when compared with the value of the
service which it can render, if properly staffed, to the cattle owners.
Low cost of animal labour is essential if crops are to be produced
economically and the working bullock, which is essential to paddy
cultivation, can only be made cheap by efficient protection of all herds