16          REPORT ON THE VETERINARY DEPARTMENT, BURMA,
                    FOR THE YEAR ENDING THE 31ST MARCH 1934.

epizootic proportions that this action is taken. Usually it is then too
late and the work of this Department is discredited in consequence.

The active assistance of Township Officers and headmen in the
early reporting of outbreaks, the provision of segregation areas, the
proper disposal of carcases, in inducing villagers to give permission to
inoculate, and of the Deputy Commissioners in closing infected areas
to cattle movement, is under present conditions, of greater importance
than any action which this Department can take to localise outbreaks.
The veterinary staff can take legally only the action, under existing rules,
which the headmen and villagers agree to and without the support of
District and Township Officers their efforts to suppress disease will, in
most cases, be of little avail.

Assistance on these lines, which is accorded by many District
officers, is acknowledged and very much appreciated, but it must be
admitted that it might be given more frequently. To some extent the
fault lies with the subordinate veterinary staff, who, probably on
account of an inferiority complex, do not consult the District and
Township Officers sufficiently early or often on these and other factors
relating to disease control, which arise in their charges.

In conclusion I have to thank all members of the Veterinary Staff
for their efforts to suppress disease and alleviate the sufferings of
animals during the year. Work on contagious disease is most onerous
at the time of the year when touring is most difficult and uncomfortable
and in the course of their inoculation duties, in remote unhealthy areas
many of the staff have contracted disease which has affected their
health for a considerable time afterwards. At the Veterinary Hospital,
Insein, unrecognized rabies in dogs brought for treatment, is of frequent
occurrence and in some cases a diagnosis is only possible after the
animal has been carefully examined or kept under observation. Each
year members of the Hospital staff of all grades have to undergo anti-
rabic vaccination and this year the number included a Research Officer.
Special mention may be made here of the work of the following
departmental officers :—

U Kyaing, Veterinary Superintendent, Tenasserim Sub-Circle, for
painstaking and efficient work in carrying out the duties of his charge.

U Aung Tun U, Veterinary Superintendent, Arakan Sub-Circle,
for successful suppression of Rinderpest which entered his charge from
Burma on two occasions during the year and was eradicated by prompt
action with a comparatively small mortality and for his energy in
pushing prophylactic inoculations against Hæmorrhagic Septicæmia
and Anthrax in the many outbreaks which occurred in his charge.

                                                                            D. T. MITCHELL,

Dated 1st August 1934.             Director of Veterinary Services, Burma.