Animal Husbandry dept jabs cattle to curb lumpy skin virus

Tirupati: Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) among white cattle has put Animal Husbandry department officials in Tirupati on high alert resulting in they have started vaccination drive in the rural areas particularly in border villages of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Following the government directions, the district officials have set up check posts at the entry points of state from neighbouring states to prevent transporting cattle as part of measures to arrest the spread of disease. Usually the symptoms of this viral disease are that the animal suffers from fever coupled with nodules on the skin and sometimes it may cause the death of animal. Usually blood-sucking insects such as flies, mosquitoes and tics act as carriers of this virus from one animal to other, which is the main cause for transmitting the disease.

In 2019, this viral disease affected white cattle in northern states and it also surfaced in some parts of AP but no deaths were reported at that time. But, now some animals in Odisha, Rajasthan, Maharashtra have reportedly died due to this viral disease which scared the officials and farmers in the state. Taking this seriously, the Centre has issued orders to all the states to administer LSD vaccine particularly at bordering villages of state to prevent its spread from neighbouring states.

Following the directions of the Centre, the state government also issued directions to the Animal Husbandry department to contain the disease by administering preventive vaccination. As part of it, Tirupati district Animal Husbandry department Deputy Director A Ravikumar has directed all the assistant directors in the district to administer the vaccine.

As part of preventive measures, the MR Palli Veterinary Area Hospital staff including AD K Ravikumar, Veterinary Officer Swaraj and a team of five assistants administered LSD vaccine to all 100 animals including bulls, cows, calves at ISKCON Gosala on Tuesday. Gosala doctor Balasubramanyam, volunteers Durga Prasad, Damu, Tharun and others helped in vaccination. Speaking to The Hans India, Animal Husbandry Deputy Director (DD) A Ravikumar said the government has provided 40,000 vaccines to the district.

He said the district has 4 lakh cattle including sheep, goats, cows, bulls and buffaloes. "We have started vaccination from August 16 and it is continuing still," he said and added that following the directions of state, we concentrated on bordering areas like Varadaiahpalem, Thada, Pichatur, Nindra, Putuur and Pallipattu and vaccinated about 25, 000 doses so far.