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280 Goat Virus Vaccination in the Central Provinces & Berar

for selecting that particular district was that due to greater movements of
nomadic cattle imported into the Province from neighbouring States like
Gwalior and Bhopal, rinderpest had been a perpetual source of menace to the
cattle of that district and the nomadic herds coming from States were respon-
sible for dissemination of the disease.

During the first year of the scheme, as many as 1,17,115 head of cattle
in 414 villages were protected by the " goat virus alone " method ; out of these
4,000 animals were inoculated with tissue virus manufactured locally. The
system of field work followed was mass inoculation of cattle in villages lying
on main routes by which nomadic cattle move. The results of these inocula-
tions were strikingly successful in gaining the confidence of local cultivators in
this method of vaccination. Up to the middle of the second year, the
scheme was continued in the same district by which time most of the cattle of
the villages situated along all the important routes were immunized against
the disease.

In order to collect more comprehensive data in varied conditions, the
work was extended to different centres in the Province where there was a
demand for such work, and Nagpur was made the central station for experi-
mental work and production of virus. On shifting to Nagpur in October 1936,
the manufacture of tissue virus was intensified, and moreover, the Provincial
Veterinary staff was also trained in the technique of manufacture of tissue virus
which was introduced for the first time in the Province.

In the three years during which the scheme remained in force, the in-
vestigation work was carried on altogether in 9 districts, viz., Saugor, Jubbul-
pore, Hoshangabad, Nimar, Chhindwara, Balaghat, Bilaspur, Amraoti and
Nagpur. Apart from the study of various interesting problems relating to goat
virus vaccination, a large number of cattle were protected against the disease
with the result that the incidence of rinderpest became considerably less as
compared to former years when only serum inoculation was done, and thus
a great relief was afforded to the cultivators. Altogether in three years, as many
as 382,621 animals were inoculated with different methods and the results
have been extremely satisfactory throughout (The details of the vaccinations
are given in Appendix A).

The main problems which formed the technical programme of work
approved by the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research are enumerated as
under:—

(a) The best method of obtaining virus, should Mukteswar goat virus be
           used, and whether local virus obtained from an actual outbreak
          could be attenuated by a certain number of passages through
          goats.

(b) What number of " passages " are necessary before the local virus
could be used safely and effectively for vaccination of cattle ?