Rajasthan govt on mission mode to check spreading lumpy skin disease among cattle

Rajasthan government has gone on an alert mode in view of the rising number of cattle stock falling prey to the lumpy skin disease and has directed the officers to work on a mission mode for the prevention of the disease.

As per officials, over 4,000 cows in the state have died due to the disease and thousands have been infected.

Animal Husbandry Minister Lalchand Kataria said that funds worth Rs 8-12 lakh have been disbursed at the division level offices in Ajmer, Bikaner and Jodhpur to buy emergency essential medicines. An amount of Rs 2 to 8 lakh has also been disbursed for other affected districts. In view of the emergency situation, the medicines available in the drug stores of other districts have been sent to the affected districts. Permission has been given to buy essential medicines under the brand name if the generic name is not available.

The minister said that the state medical teams and teams from neighbouring districts have been sent to the more affected districts. For the affected districts, 29 veterinary doctors and 93 livestock assistants have been deployed from other districts. Approval of 30 additional vehicles has been issued for effective monitoring and treatment of sick animals. Nodal officers sent from the directorate are visiting the affected areas and monitoring them continuously. More staff will be sent from other districts if required. A control room has been set up in the affected districts as well as at the Jaipur Headquarters for continuous monitoring of the disease spreading among livestock.

Giving instructions to control the lumpy skin disease completely in 15 days, secretary P.C. Kishan said that close monitoring is being done in Barmer, Jalore, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Sirohi districts due to high infection. He said that vigilance is also being done in other districts, including Dungarpur, Banswara, Udaipur, Rajsamand adjoining Gujarat. He said that teams from Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi and National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal have collected samples of sick animals from Jodhpur and Nagaur districts.

Kishan informed that the districts have been given full powers to deal with this disaster of disease outbreak. He instructed the officers to keep the sick animals separate from the healthy animals. Along with this, instructions were given to dispose of the dead animals through scientific methods.

"The outbreak of this disease is high in Jodhpur division, although the death rate is not high. One to 1.5 per cent of the animals that get sick are dying, which are very weak and have low immunity. Veterinarians are doing symptomatic treatment to prevent the disease. In order to protect healthy animals from the disease, animal owners have been advised to keep the infected animal completely separated, if symptoms like fever and lump, etc., are detected," said the officials.

Kataria was reviewing measures being taken for the prevention of the disease with the officials of the affected districts through video conferencing at Pant Shi Bhawan here on Wednesday.

He directed the officers to immediately reach the spot on getting information about the infection and make the people aware of the preventive measures.

Chief Secretary Usha Sharma also had a meeting with ten district collectors and district level officers of the Animal Husbandry Department through video conferencing to review the status of lumpy skin disease spreading in the state and the efforts being made to prevent it. She informed that the state government was taking all the necessary steps with alertness and sensitivity regarding the spreading of lumpy skin disease in cattle in the state.