GUINEA PIGS FOR HEALTH

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27065, 13 June 1953, Page 9

GUINEA PIGS FOR HEALTH

Live Cargo Reaches Kabul KABUL, Afghanistan. An unusual live cargo recently arrived here from India to aid in protecting and improving the health of children and mothers, the World Health Organisation reports. ■ The cargo included 48 guinea pigs for a public health laboratory recently set up by Afghanistan with the help of the World Health Organisation and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. The health agency gave technical guidance and UNICEF provided equipment and supplies. The guinea pigs came from the Central Research Institute at Kasauli, India. They were joined during their 2600-mile trip by 18 rabbits and 24 white mice which will be used as breeding stock. Shipping arrangements and purchase and transportation costs were undertaken by both agencies. The animals will be used in laboratory tests vital to the maternal and child health programmes supplied by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation in Afghanistan. Later, they will be used in the production of vaccine and serum. Top priority was given to the animals and their escort by Air-India and Himalayan Aviation, Ltd. Apart from air travel, their crates, with a sevenday food supply, were bumped over the roads in trucks, passenger trains, station waggons, and even taxi-cabs.