January 14, 2011

Bhains Ki Post

Q. 9: What do you know about foot and mouth disease of African Buffalo? Explain with an elaborate diagram.                              (15 Marks)

(Note: Blogger has no idea whats so special about African Buffaloes and what on earth is foot and mouth disease)

Ans: 
Introduction
  • Buffalo is one of the widely used or in other words, employed cattle in the World, especially in poor developing countries which are primarily based on Agriculture.
  • Almost all the buffaloes are black, In fact, black color is considered the distinguishing features of the buffalo; but color variation can occur with regional changes and other metaphysical factors.
  • Buffalo is popular with different names. In India (one of the largest buffalo producer) it is primarily called 'bhains' in the Hindi-speaking Northern plains, and 'Yerumai' in southern plateau region. In ancient Indian scriptures it has been addressed "Mahishi", while in Greek Mythology it has been mentioned as "Beta o u Beta Alpha Lambda" which may seem like a code name but it is phonetically correct.
Reasons for raising buffalo
  • Buffalo being a mammal has got breasts, which are used to squeeze out milk at dusk and dawn period.
  • Buffalo has been traditionally used as a grazer, so it can work as your natural dustbin (but the quality of milk can degrade proportionally)
  • Its dung ('gobar' in Hindi) is multipurpose and is used in villages for polishing the earthen floors, as fuel (in the form of cakes) or even as a quick fix to broken walls and so on.

Injustice to Buffalo
  • In Indian tradition, Buffalo has always been considered inferior to Holy cow. It has been used only as a substitute to cow in field and have never been given a chance to demonstrate her full potential.
  • This can be attributed to her black color. In comparison cow is usually spotless white or can have designer tattoos by birth. So, this can be considered as a racial behavior on the part of man.
  • Man (especially modern alpha male) have been guilty of abusing buffaloes in many ways. "Bhains ki Aankh Nikalana", "Mari Bhains Ki Poonch Paadna", "Bhains Ki Taang", "Bull's (Buffalo's Daddy) Eye" etc. have been used as slang without caring for the emotions of the mute buffalo. While the hypocritical man reasons it as a way of giving respect to buffalo, in reality he is disrespecting the buffalo and giving her emotional harassment.

Buffaloes in Africa
  • Buffaloes in Africa are no special, after all they are buffaloes only.
  • But one distinguishing features of African buffaloes is that they are heavily built as compared to the Indians. And they are quite fast too, which may be a result of the naturally green patches there.
  • But African buffaloes are usually considered second to Subcontinental ones especially Indian buffaloes which though may not be as strong as their African counterparts but are equally aggressive if challenged.

Foot and Mouth Disease
  • Foot and Mouth Disease is a very serious disease found in cattle especially buffaloes.
  • It is caused by a certain virus, and though the disease is curable, the recovery rate and period are discouraging.
  • Foot and Mouth Disease as the name suggests occurs in foot and as well as mouth. The disease is so infectious, that it is difficult to differentiate b/w foot and mouth.

Diagram 
These African buffaloes are called Hippo owing to their size and this particular buffalo is suffering from foot & mouth disease.

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