Practical Hints : East Coast Fever. - 63 



action when, for instance, concerned with a quarantined area on which 

 no deaths have occurred for six or twelve months. A better spirit of 

 co-operation might be engendered if farmers would explain to their 

 native tenants the reason why they have to obtain permits and show 

 Ihem the danger to his neighbours of an individual who moves cattle 

 without a permit, especially after it has been refused by the authori- 

 ties, or who fails to comply w4tli the conditions of a permit. It is 

 not natives alone who offend against the permit system. Only 

 recently it came to my notice that a European who bought cattle at a 

 sale, and who received a permit to remove them to his farm by rail, 

 decided that this was too much trouble or expense and sent them oif 

 by road. He may or may not have known the route was through 

 infected farms, but it was, and the cattle went to his farm situated in 

 a clean area in another district. This shows the danger to a district 

 an individual can be who fails to carry out the conditions of a permit. 



Farmers could lielp in the course of their travels by seeing that 

 natives driving cattle were in possession of correct permits. They 

 might also, when they do not desire their native tenants to bring 

 more cattle on to their farms, directly refuse. They should not give 

 them a note to the permit officer setting* forth the native's r^uire- 

 ments and ask him to refuse same, when from an East Coast fever 

 point of view such refusal cannot be justified, nor should they send 

 their natives with notes asking for permits which they know are 

 bound to be refused. It is not fair in such cases to put the onus of 

 refusal on tlie officials. 



East Coast fever is a disease which undoubtedly could be eradi- 

 cated from the country if every stock owner could be prevailed upon 

 to carry out the necessary measures. As has been demonstrated in 

 numerous instances, it is a comparatively easy matter to wipe the 

 disease off farms and native locations, and the losses are not heavy 

 provided the disease is diagnosed early ; consequently with the co- 

 operation of stock owners and officials it should be i)ossible to rid the 

 whole country of the disease. The great stumbling'-block is the native 

 population, wlio do not understand the nature of the disease and the 

 way it is carried from sick to healthy cattle, and therefore do not 

 realize the necessity for the preventive measures adopted. The only 

 way to deal with them is to place all native-owned cattle under a 

 certain amount of European supervision— on European-owned farms 

 where there is a resident white man such supervision should be part of 

 his duty, and in native locations the Government provide the necessary 

 supervision. It is the native-owned farms and farms with absentee 

 landlords, and many of the Crown lands, which want looking after, 

 for these farms are usually situated in the least accessible and hottest 

 parts of the country, where it is most suitable for tick-life and 

 consequently most likely to harbour tick-conveyed diseases. It is 

 difficult to obtain the services of reliable men who will live in these 

 areas and carry on the work of supervision. In tie Ixopo District, 

 I am glad to say, practically all native-owned cattle outside the 

 private farms receive a certain amount of supervision, mostly by 

 Europeans living close to the native areas concerned. This system 

 of local supervision has g*iven good results and is less expensive to the 

 country. 



