March, 1956]
SYED
MOHIYUDDEEN
3
nervous disease in Hosnagar, Sagar and Sorab taluks of Shimoga District forms
part of the Western Ghats and is contiguous with south Kanara of Madras State
and north Canara of Bombay State, where a similar condition has been recorded.
The area is characterised by dense forests and valleys with an average rainfall of
over 150 inches annually. The valleys abound in strips of wet land which are more
or less exclusively under paddy and arecanut cultivation. On the slopes surround-
ing the valleys are here and there small villages and hamlets and their cattle graze
on adjoining hills and jungles. Except the working animals used for paddy cultiva-
tion, the rest of the cattle of this Malnad area are not fed on any concentrates or
mineral supplement. Sheltering of animals at nights is peculiar to these parts
and consists of their being huddled together without being tied or secured, inside
an enclosed ill ventilated stall. Their bedding consists of dried or green leaves,
depending on the seasons. The daily collection of dung and urine from the animals
are allowed to get mixed up with the leaves and at intervals of a fortnight or so
fresh layer of leaves is spread on the floor without removing the previous accumula-
tion and this process continues till the onset of cultivation season, when the whole
decayed matter is removed to the lands and used as manure. During the rainy
season the animals lie down on such a type of bedding soaked in dung and urine
and get severely exposed to dampness and moisture. In some parts of Sagar taluk
the low lying pastures become water-logged due to continuous heavy rains and
cattle seldom have access to any grass as it is practically submerged in water.
During this period, they just subsist on whatever vegetation they can eat in the
dense forests. In summer when pastures get dried up, animals have to feed on
the leaves of trees and bushes. Consequently the condition of the animals in these
parts is generally poor and their quality inferior. Heavy rainfall, dense forests
and poor condition of the cattle are the outstanding features of the endemic area
of this obscure disease while a variety of blood sucking insects are not uncommon
in the locality.
This obscure nervous disease of bovines, characterised by paraplegia and
progressive paralysis, prevalent in some parts of Shimoga, south Kanara and north
Kanara districts of Mysore, Madras and Bombay States respectively has been
attributed by different workers to different conditions at different times. Viswa-
nathan [1946] in Madras suspected the disease to be bovine contagious pleuropneu-
monia. Ramakrishnan [1953] thought that the condition might be a form of
Botulism, but failed to produce the disease in healthy animals by feeding them
with emulsion of bones collected from affected areas. He quoted personal
communications from Hurley [1949] and Rajagopalan [1950] instructing the de-
partmental staff in Madras to eliminate the possibility of acute amphistomiasis,
theileriasis and hydrocyanic acid poisoning and recorded that materials from a
number of affected cattle with paraplegia, when chemically analysed, did not show
any evidence of hydrocyanic acid poisoning.
Kulkarni [1952], while recording a similar disease in north Kanara district
(Bombay State) thought that it might be pulmonary haemorrhagic septicaemia.
Ramakrishnan and Ananthapadmanabhan [1953] suggested that the disease might
be either latent trypanosomiasis or some form of cerebro-spinal microfilariasis,
while Neelakanta Iyer and Seetharaman [1953] believed that the condition might