Report of the Department of Agriculture. 521 



areas in which dipping operations were not supervised but left to 

 stock owners themselves. In Umvoti and Estcourt veterinary areas, 

 the two worst infected areas last year, much headway was made, 

 but on the other hand setbacks were experienced in Vryheid, Paul- 

 pietersburg, Babanango, Utrecht, Ixopo, Camperdown, Richmond, 

 and Lower Tugela Districts, due mainly to two causes, namely, 

 irregular and improper dipping, and failure to report deaths 

 promptly. Long familiarity with the disease in Natal has bred 

 contempt and when it is not in the immediate neighbourhood there 

 is a tendency for dipping operations to become slack and irregular, 

 and at certain seasons they are even entirely suspended. During 

 the year an increase of staff was authorized, but it was well into the 

 summer months before suitable men could be obtained, and owing 

 to the fresh outbreaks, in addition to the old infected areas which 

 require close supervision, the whole staff was employed in infected 

 and in-contact areas only. The additional inspectors, however, 

 assisted very materially in checking and eradicating the disease in 

 those areas, and on the whole the results were satisfactory. If the 

 same supervision could be extended to all areas exposed to infection. 

 East Coast fever could quickly be eradicated in Natal, and this 

 extension of supervision thus prove economical. 



Transhei. — During the year 58 fresh outbreaks were reported 

 as against 56 during the previous year, and the areas in quarantine 

 on 30tli June, 1922, totalled 100, as compared with 70 a year previous. 

 The following districts are free from the disease : — Matatiele, 

 Qumbu, Tsomo, St. Marks, Xalanga, Nqamakwe, and Port St. Johns, 

 west of the Umzumvubu River. Unfortunately, there was a recru- 

 descence of the disease in several districts, more especially in the 

 Kentani, Butterworth, Engcobo, and Umzimkulu districts. This is 

 attributable to a variety of causes, chief amongst which were the 

 excessive rains following drought which prevented the proper dipping 

 of cattle ; the extensive movement of stock necessary during drought 

 and the failure of the water supply at some tanks on account of the 

 drought ; non-co-operation of a certain number of stock owners who 

 evade dipping ; a tendency to slacken off dipping operations in some 

 localities where the natives having dipped for many years become 

 tired of the routine or, lulled into a sense of false security, feel there 

 is no longer any danger to be feared from East Coast fever ; and 

 illicit movements of cattle, which, in these vast unfenced areas 

 almost entirely occupied by natives, are practically impossible to 

 check. The inadequate number of field officers and dipping tanks, 

 too, must be regarded as largely responsible for the slow progress 

 made in the eradication of the disease, but several new_ tanks are at 

 present in course of construction and will be in readiness for the 

 campaign against the disease next summer. The position in 

 Eastern Pondoland, which is regarded as one wholly suspected area, 

 may be considered satisfactory in view of the fact that out of a total 

 of 151,000 head of cattle only .']01 head have died from East Coast 

 fever. 



3. Anthrax. 



This disease is still prevalent throughout the whole of the Union, 

 and it is more than likely, in the large unsettled districts and native 

 areas where police posts are few and far between, that many out- 

 breaks are not reported. 



