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4
local diseases in horses and cattle. I regret to say that no notes or papers on the subject were found amongst Dr. Chaplin's effects.
I have, &c.,
Enclosure in No. 4.
H. BRYAN,
Deputy Governor.
REPORT ON THE HEALTH AND CAUSES OF DEATH OF HORSES IN ASHANTI.
1. The only places where horses will live at all in the forest country in Ashanti are two large clearings: (1) at Kumasi; (2) Mampon. At Attabubu it is open country and horses live; also in the north part of British Gaman, in the neighbour- hoods of Wonki, Sikassiko, and Pulliano, which are beyond the forest belt.
2. The chief cause of the horses being unable to live is the presence of the tsetse fly; most of the horses brought into the forest belt being bitten and dying from trypanosomiasis; the horse, as a rule, lives only a few weeks, but a few survive some months. I have made post-mortems on several, and found, in one case, death caused by nephritis, and in one from a growth in the liver, in the rest the cause of death was the trypanosome.
3. The number of horses that have been brought to Kumasi this year is 15; of these one is alive and well at Mampon, one alive and well here, two at present ill from trypanosome disease, and the rest dead. Horses that are taken over two miles from Kumasi usually become infected.
4. The grass, except in the large clearings mentioned, is not suited to horses; also the water in many places, I understand, gives the horses a variety of intestinal fluke.
5. The forest belt extends to the western boundary and southern boundary of Ashanti, and to the north except for a part of British Gaman, and to the east except for a portion near Attabubu.
6. The only way I can suggest that horses might live is that they be brought by sea from Lagos or England and by train in fly-protected trucks and kept in the large clearings. On some occasions horses escape being infected by travelling at night in the dry season and being protected by smoke fires when resting.
G. J. RUTHERFORD,
Acting Senior Medical Officer,
Ashanti.
5
4. When sick cattle are travelling, observes Mr. Stockman, they are constantly picking up ticks, which drop off when full. The engorgement of these particular ticks, after which they are virulent, may occur in three days, and they then drop off. This means that the line of march itself is infected, although it may be a matter of some considerable time before evidence of the fact is forthcoming, and possibly it may not be discovered at all.
5. The Board point out that the reason for this is obvious. On the march no temporary halting place is likely to be badly infected; it is when sick cattle remain for some time on one pasture that they pick up a large number of ticks, and drop in a relatively small area a corresponding number of infected ones, which are dangerous to other cattle. The intervening areas are, nevertheless, sparsely infected, and, if no precautionary measures are taken, it may well happen that a passing herd of clean cattle will chance upon an isolated centre of infection, and in this way carry the disease to remote districts without any suspicion being aroused until the disease breaks out.
6. The experience of the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Board in the Transvaal went to show that these unknown areas of infection constituted the weakest part. of the defensive measures, and he is strongly of opinion that no cattle should be allowed to traverse a suspected route except under a permit. This would enable the local administration to secure the proper observation of the cattle, the notification of cases of sickness among them, and their isolation prior to removal from suspected area to clean land. It would ensure greater security, however, if all necessary transport on suspected routes was carried on by means of mules and donkeys for eighteen months after the last case of disease, if such a thing were practicable.
7. With regard to the fencing of cattle areas and routes, the Board remarks that fencing, in conjunction with the permit system, will get rid of the disease in time, and that it has practically arrested its spread in the Transvaal. There is no doubt also, in their opinion, that even within an infected area, some of the cattle can be saved and the ground cleansed, as will be seen from the article by Messrs. Theiler and Stockman in the Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics for June, 1905, a copy of which is enclosed herewith.
I have, &c.,
1938
ELGIN.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
سياسيا
Reference :-
C.O. 885
20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
41303
(No. 34.) SIR,
No. 5.
EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
THE EARL OF ELGIN to COMMISSIONER SADLER.
[Answered by No. 28.]
Downing Street, January 26, 1906.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Jackson's despatch, No. 589, of the 30th of October, 1905,* and to inform you that I approve of the expenditure involved in carrying out the scheme for dealing with the recent out- break of African Coast Fever at Nairobi.
2. The report of the proceedings of the meeting, enclosed in Mr. Jackson's despatch, has been referred to the Board of Agriculture, who offer the following observations upon it, premising that it is practically a resumé of the report which was issued by the Transvaal Agricultural Department in 1904 on the operations against east coast fever and their results.
3. In the course of Mr. Stordy's remarks reference is made to the case of Messrs. Thomas and Moore's cattle developing east coast fever at Parklands, after being brought from Naivasha, and the conclusion is stated to be that
This shows that infected ticks have been carried from the original location as far as Parklands, leaving the intervening areas clean."
• No. 53 in African No. 774.
SIR,
No. 6.
GAMBIA.
COLONIAL OFFICE to BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES. Downing Street, February 3, 1906. WITH reference to your letter of the 20th of November* respecting the possible existence of anthrax in the Gambia, I am directed by the Earl of Elgin to transmit to you, for the information of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, a copy of a despatcht from the Governor of the Colony, to whom your letter was communicated, together with a report by Dr. E. Hopkinson, the Medical Officer of the Gambia Protectorate.
I am to add that Lord Elgin hopes to be able to make arrangements for sending out a competent veterinary surgeon to report on the disorders of cattle and horses in the Gambia.
43565
No. 7.
I am, &c.,
R. L. ANTROBUS.
COLONIAL OFFICE to THE SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIRE.
Downing Street, 7 February, 1906. [Published as No. 213 in [Cd. 3189], „November, 1906.]
• No. 54 in African No. 774,
† No. 3.