NEW DELHI: The Central Government said that it will release vaccination for Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) on September 18. It is a viral disease that affects cattle and buffalo, and causes significant economic losses to small farmers.
In the past two years, around 2 lakhs cattle died and millions of cattle lost their milk producing capacity due to LSD across the country.
“The LSD vaccination is at commercial stage and will be released soon,” said Alka Upadhyay, Secretary, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy.
“We found that the Goat pox vaccine is equally effective and helped in controlling LSD. Currently, the number of infected cattle across the country is less than 200,” said Upadhyay.
The government said last year around 8 crore cattle got vaccinated and this year so far 4 crore vaccinated against LSD and foot and mouth disease.
There have been two major outbreaks of LSD in India, the first in 2019 and the second in 2022. It is spread by blood-feeding insects like flies and mosquitoes, and through direct contact between cattle, contaminated food, and water.
The infected cattle experience high fever and skin nodules and can lead to death and further infected milk production. In 2022, the procurement of milk by major organized dairies reduced compared to previous year.
Earlier, on the occasion of the completion of 100 days of the third term of the Modi government, Union Minister of Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Ministry of Fisheries told the media of growth and future plans of the sectors.
“Livestock sector has grown around 10% in the nine years and contributed to total agriculture and allied sector to over 30% from 24.36%,” said Rajeev Ranjan, Union Minister of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Fisheries.
He further underlined important initiatives undertaken in the first 100 days of the government.
“The government has taken initiative of production and distribution of indigenous sex sorted semen production technology, indigenously developed media for IVF, unified genomic chip for bovines, starting of 21st Livestock Census, creation of free zones of Foot and Mouth Disease zone in the country,” said Ranjan.
