Lumpy Skin Disease Kills 67,000 Cattle; Netizens Urge Govt to Speed Up the Vaccination Process
The disease is initially characterised by fever, followed by the growth of cutaneous nodules (2–5 cm) all over the body, according to Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Head of Department, Veterinary Medicine, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana. Lesions that affect the mouth, throat, and respiratory system in some animals can result in pneumonia, swollen lymph nodes, edema of the limbs, or brisket region.
Lumpy Skin Disease: The sickness that’s been haunting cows for the last 2 months has now killed over 67,000 cows in India. It is mainly spreading in eight Indian states Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir with Rajasthan seeing around 600-700 cow deaths every day, according to Jatindra Nath Swain, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department Secretary. He added that the ministry has asked states to quicken the vaccination process. However, the process still remains slow.
Speaking about which Instagram Influencer, Ted the Stoner shared an announcement post with his 1.6 million followers urging them to spread awareness about the Lumpy Skin Disease in cows.
He said, “The government should speed up the vaccination process and make it more easier for the remote areas to reach out for help. The general public needs to have more awareness about the cruelty that goes on in the dairy industry and should try to avoid dairy products, not because of the lumpy virus, but because the cows are tortured for the milk that we all consume.”
He added that the cows that have been infected need to be separated from the healthy ones. The cows are not living in good conditions in a majority of areas which makes this worse.
On August 10, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar introduced the indigenous vaccine Lumpi-ProVac to help the nation's cattle by protecting them from Lumpy skin disease.
The National Equine Research Center, Hisar, produced the vaccination in cooperation with the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izzatnagar (Haryana). Lumpy Skin Disease is curable, but the virus may contaminate their milk.
Ticks and other blood-feeding insects like flies and mosquitoes spread the viral disease, as well. It induces fever and skin nodules and even kills the animals.
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