M (1) 9
been able to stop the entry and spread of any infectious disease. Much of the credit for this is due to police officers on border duty who did all that could be done to control the wild rush over our frontier.
CONTAGIOUS ABORTION.
Among cattle this still causes a certain amount of loss. For various reasons immunisation with live vaccine has been given up for some years and rigid segregation of affected cows has been practised. Calves from affected cows are kept separate from calves from healthy cows and are fed from birth from non-infected cows. By this means a steady improvement is being made and the rate of improvement is greater than when vaccine was used.
Anthrax.-An isolated case occurred in a small cattle-shed in the Kowloon district in April.
Four cases occurred in one shed of a large farm in Hong Kong.
Two ponies in a stable near the frontier died simultaneously. The disease was sporadic in all cases and was considered to be due to infected fodder.
Rabies. One case occurred at Taipo during July. The dog was a stray unknown to any of the residents of the neighbourhood. Several dogs were suspected of having been bitten by the case and were destroyed. No further cases occurred up to the end of the year.
In all twelve brains were examined by the Government Bacteriologist for the presence of Negri Bodies but they were only demonstrable in the brain of the dog referred to above.
Vaccination of dogs against rabies is not carried out by Government but owners are encouraged to have it done by their private practitioners.
year.
Control of movement of dogs and muzzling have been maintained during the year.
The following animals were kept under observation during the year as suspected of being rabid but all were found free of the disease.
DOGS 272, MONKEYS 3, CATS 4.
Rinderpest. One outbreak of fairly serious proportions occurred in Hong Kong during the month of February. The disease appeared in several sheds simultaneously and in spite of prompt use of serum spread very rapidly through the adjoining sheds.
Eleven sheds became infected, with 170 cases and 94 deaths. The outbreak was over by April and there have been no further outbreaks. Immunisation is done by private practitioners at the request of the owners and is not compulsory.
At the same time it seemed that another outbreak had started in Kowloon. On investigation it was found not to be Rinderpest but a very severe diarrhea. The evidence suggested that this was due to feeding the animals with large quantities of "Lantana" twigs and leaves.
TUBERCULOSIS.
The incidence of this disease among animals is much less than in European countries. Among native cattle and buffaloes it is practically unknown. In eighteen years supervision of the local abattoir, I have never seen a tubercular lesion in native cattle. In the larger herds of dairy cattle Tuberculin testing is carried out regularly and the reactors and doubtful reactors are segregated from the rest of the herd. Those reactors which are not good milkers, those with any suspicion of abnormality of the udders, those which are also infected with B. Abortus and old cows are slaughtered. The calves from these cows are removed from the cows at birth and reared on milk from free cows. The incidence of this disease is also decreasing.