Lumpy skin disease affects over 5,000 cattle in west UP

LUCKNOW: More than 5,000 cattle have been affected by the lumpy skin disease virus while 30 have died due to this so far in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh including Meerut, Baghpat, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, and Bijnor.

Farmers have been told to keep affected animals away from healthy ones and to ensure fogging in animal sheds.

According to veterinary doctors, animals affected by the disease go down with fever and develop rashes on their skin which turn into wounds after some time. It takes 2 to 3 weeks to recover from the disease.

Farmers are worried over increasing cases of the disease and have accused officials of not making enough efforts to check it.

Additional Director, Animal Husbandry, Meerut division, Brajveer Singh said all precautionary measures are being taken to keep a check on the spread of the disease.

He said that it is a viral disease and teams had been formed at block level in all districts of the division to brief farmers about taking precautionary measures.

"Teams have directed farmers to keep sick animals away from healthy ones and to keep their sheds clean", said Singh, adding that the state government had banned animal trading fairs and transportation of animals from bordering states.

Singh said more than 300 animals were affected by the disease in the division and at least three of them died in Bulandshahr district alone. He said that mortality rate is low.

Meanwhile, district officials have sent their requirements for vaccines to the state government. "We hope to receive the vaccines soon," said Singh.

With 66 new fresh cases of the disease reported, the total number of cases in Meerut district has gone up to 223.

Chief veterinary officer in the district Akhilesh Garg claimed that no death from lumpy disease was reported in the district and 40 affected animals had recovered in the past few days.

Veterinary officer in Baghpat Rakesh Chandra said that transportation of animals from bordering Haryana had been stopped and teams in were tracing diseased animals. He said 32 animals in the district were affected by the disease.

According to reports, at least 6 out of the over 2000 affected animals died in Muzaffarnagar district and 22 out of over 2500 sick animals died in Saharanpur, 4 out of 582 affected animals succumbed in Shamli and over 100 animals got affected by the virus in Nangla and Najibabad areas of Bijnor.

Yogesh Sharma, district president of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) in Muzaffarnagar, said that the number of sick animals was much higher than the officially reported figures.

He accused officials of the animal husbandry department of not making enough efforts to control the disease and said farmers were taking their own measures to protect their animals.