10
(II)—OTHER DISEASES.
22. During the year 12,828 villages were visited by the staff on tour
and 90,389 animals were treated. This is a great improvement on last year,
and is due to the fact that not only the itinerating Veterinary Assistants visit
villages, but also the stationary Veterinary Assistants, when called out to
attend outbreaks of contagious diseases; in consequence the work of the
department is becoming more widely known.
23. Bots or warbles.—Although this complaint sometimes causes
maggots to enter the wound after the warble works its way out of the skin, the
affection does not cause very serious bodily derangements. The great loss to
the country is in the hides of cattle and skins of goats: hides damaged by
warbles are received by hide merchants from all parts of the Punjab and North-
West Frontier Province. Lectures as to how to deal with the disease have
been given to Veterinary Assistants, with instructions to advise owners of cattle
what to do. To catch and destroy the fly is an impossible undertaking; the
only thing to do is to destroy the insect in the maggot stage.
24. Cruelty cases.—A large number of cases have been detected and
treated in the hospitals during the year.
Table IV.
25. Castrations.—The department has overcome to a considerable
extent the prejudice of the people (especially in the
Kangra District) against castration, and a large number of
undesirable bulls have been emasculated. The Chief Superintendent lectured
and gave practical demonstrations in the villages, and it is very satisfactory to
observe that the people now realize the necessity for the operation, and approve
of the scientific method, as is proved by the fact that 38,092 castrations have
been performed during the year against 19,991 last year.
Table V.
26. Veterinary hospitals.—At the end of the year there were 121
hospitals against 120 in the previous year. Three old
hospitals have been rebuilt according to the standard plan,
at Jandiala and Ramdas (Amritsar District), Zafarwal (Sialkot District).
The stables and dog box of the Dalhousie hospital have been completed
during the year, and the operation shed is now being built. The hospital has
been built and the medicines and instruments supplied free of cost to Govern-
ment.
Besides the above, the Chief Superintendent has to thank the following
Indian gentlemen for their help :—
Mirza Shuja Beg of Patti (Lahore District), for the hospital he is
building, which will be completed in a couple of months.
Lala Hari Ram, for an operation shed he is building in the hospital
at Batala.
Lala Jiwan Das, for providing, at a cost of Rs. 800, a well at the
Gohana hospital,
Raja Sahib Megh Singh, for building an operation shed in the hospi-
tal at Sultanpur.
In addition to the above, various Indian gentlemen have promised to erect
similar buildings: but the work has not yet been undertaken. Mention of them
will be made more appropriately in next year's report.
316,686 cases have been treated at the Veterinary hospitals during the
year against 317,802 last year. Considering the shortage of Veterinary Assist-
ants the work done is very satisfactory.
Part III.—Breeding operations.
Horse breeding.
Number of stallions—
Table X.
27. At the close of the year there were 68 horse and 76 donkey
stallions in the non-selected districts of the province.