Abstract
A REPORT on British Guiana, by Prof. W. C. Miller, forming part of a survey of animal husbandry, feeding, management and veterinary services in the West Indies, has been issued as Bulletin 19A of the series "Development and Welfare in the West Indies" (Bridgetown : Advocate Pub. Co., Ltd. 10 cents). Reviewing the general position of livestock, Prof. Miller points out that the running of estate dairies in the coastal belt has great potentialities from the point of view of improved human nutrition and of the general improvement of the livestock reservoir of the Colony, and suggestions are included both for a Government ranch and for a breeding policy for two types of herds. Stress is laid on the great potential asset of the cattle ranches ; and in addition to proposals for changing the character of the breeding stock in the hinterlands, the report discusses transport of meat by air and the establishment of an abattoir. Dealing with .peasant-owned livestock, Prof. Miller regards prospects for dairying as reasonably good ; but now that extension of livestock production has been started, more adequate provision for control of disease and for improving animal health by the formation of a properly constituted veterinary service is imperative. In Prof. Miller‘s opinion, the minimum effective service would consist of one deputy director of agriculture, stationed in Georgetown, with two senior veterinary officers, one on the coastlands and the other in the Rupununi ; two veterinary officers, one on the coast and the other available for emergency work ; one senior and two other animal husbandry officers, one of whom would be stationed in the Rupununi or other part of the hinterland. Technical staff would also be required in the veterinary laboratory now being equipped. There is already more than sufficient work to keep such a staff fully employed, and basic agricultural education is also required at all levels. In particular, Prof. Miller directs attention to the question of scholarships for higher training in veterinary science and animal husbandry for locally born persons, and to the desirability of arrangements for periods of study-leave for officers already in the service to be spent at institutes investigating associated or cognate problems.
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Animal Health in British Guiana. Nature 161, 345 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161345c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161345c0