HYDERABAD: Even as the lumpy skin disease (LSD) has been spreading across 26 districts in the State affecting about 3,000 white and black cattle, veterinary and animal husbandry officials assure that the situation is under control.
Learning from the experience of 2020 when the disease had spread rapidly with grave consequences for the first time, coupled with the timely development of homegrown goat-pox vaccine at the Veterinary and Biological Research Institute (VBRI) and the Indian Immunologicals Limited (National Dairy Development Board) in Hyderabad, the Animal Husbandry Department is currently adopting the ‘ring vaccination’ strategy to vaccinate all the animals located within an area covering 5 km radius, wherever an infected animal has been found.
Though it has been reported that over 80,000 cattle have died across the country in recent months due to LSD, veterinary officials claim that only three calves have died in Telangana.
“Most of the cattle which were infected in 2020 will have immunity to fight the infection for a second time. That is the reason the present wave has been milder in Telangana, whereas it has been devastating in northern States where the disease has affected for the first time,” maintains Dr S Ramchander, director of the V&AH Department.
Out of 2,967 white and black cattle infected by the Capripox virus (which causes LSD) in 372 villages, he says that 2,200 have recovered and 700 have been ailing. According to him, 2,61,672 of the total cattle population of 84,00,000 in Telangana have been vaccinated in the last three months, and 33,00,000 vaccines are available with his department. The State government is also supplying vaccines to Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, he said.
“Vaccinating the entire cattle population is not needed. Isolating the cattle from their herd if infected and treating them is the key, as it is spread through lice, mosquitoes and some kinds of flies,” he said, adding that the State government has recently released Rs 15 crore for medicines and that health camps are being conducted in all areas where the viral infection has spread.
All cattle coming from other States are being prevented from entering from the highway check-posts with the support of road transport and police officials, and local ‘santhas’ where cattle are sold, have also been shut to prevent the spread of the virus, he said. However, a challenge for control of the disease is being faced by gaushalas in and around Hyderabad, which offer shelter to hundreds of cows.
“Most of the cows brought to our shelters are either ill, or weak, and this disease easily affects the weaker cattle. We have seen in 2020 that the ones which were strong had recovered on their own. This time around, we are spraying a natural mix of neem, turmeric and a herbal paste after boiling it in water and cooling it down. More than 10 cows have been infected and some of them have been released after recovery,” says Venkat, a volunteer who serves cows at Sri Sadhguru Samartha Narayana Ashram Kamadhenu Gaushala in Jiyaguda, which houses 5,000 cows.