ANNUAL REPORT.

VETERINARY DEPARTMENT, SUDAN GOVERNMEN GENERAL REMARKS.

Before proceeding with the description of the work and conditions of the past year, it will he as well to give a statement of the present situation and to make a forecast of the development and extra work which will have to he undertaken in the near future.

As regards the present, we are faced with the decision of the Army Council to the effect that they will cease the supply of British Veterinary Officers to the Sudan Government; they are, in fact, determined to reduce the establishment of British \ eterinary Officers from 13 to 3. This will come at a time when the duties of the Department will he multiplying and developing in every direction. Consequently the Sudan Government is faced with the necessity of having its own independent Veterinary Service, and not relying as heretofore on the Egyptian Army.

As regards the future : The time is very near when there will have to be a considerable expansion in the Veterinary Services of the Sudan. It cannot at present he considered to be any more than a skeletal Service, and with the fast approaching development of the country it will be essential to increase largely the personnel of the Service. In this connection I wish to draw attention to the Veterinary Services of other African Protectorates. These Protectorates have no export trade in animals and have no herd tax. There was a proposal in Kenya Colony to establish a herd tax, the proceeds ot which would he devoted to the Veterinary Department. This proposal however was not adopted. To take the Protectorates and Colonies of Kenya, Tanganvka, N vassaland and Uganda, which together are not as big as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. These countries have provision for 53 Veterinary Officers as against the Sudan’s present provision of 13.

To continue as regards development, The Southern provinces are at present practically untouched from a veterinary point of view, and a thorough survey of the diseases which exist there ought to he undertaken, f»V