Pune among 4 districts to report Lumpy Skin Disease

PUNE: The state animal husbandry commissionerate has detected Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) - a contagious viral disease of the cattle - in four districts, including Pune.
A total of 238 cases of LSD have been reported in Maharashtra. Eight cattle (cows and bulls) have succumbed to the virus in Jalgaon district alone.
The commissionerate has now expedited vaccination in these districts to contain the spread. So far, some 36,000 cattle have been vaccinated in the affected districts, officials said.
State animal husbandry commissioner, Sachindra Pratap Singh, who has been touring the affected districts for the past two days, said this is the third consecutive year LSD has been reported in the state.
"Last year, we did not report any deaths of cattle. The situation is worrisome this year. We have started vaccinations of cattle on a war footing to contain the spread. Importantly, LSD does not affect humans," he said.
Singh added, "In Junnar, we are going to vaccinate 1,453 cattle. Over 2,000 vaccine doses have been provided to the Zilla Parishad (ZP) to carry out the vaccine drive in the tehsil." As per practice, the animal husbandry department vaccinates cattle within a five-kilometer radius of the affected zone.
Experts said blood-feeding insects such as ticks, mosquitoes, and certain species of flies transmit LSD in cattle. It can also spread through contaminated fodder, water and feed. During the monsoon, the disease can spread fast as mosquito and housefly infections peak.
A senior veterinary doctor, who has examined LSD cases, said the disease attacks the circulatory system in an animal. "It causes inflammation of blood vessels and lesions of various organs such as the lungs and liver. Affected cattle develop lumps on the body," the doctor said.
Nationwide, LSD has has already taken lives of over 5,000 cattle in six states/UT in the past one month. According to casualty estimates by the agriculture ministry, Rajasthan has reported the highest 2,411 deaths of cattle, followed by Gujarat at 1,879, Punjab at 672, Himachal Pradesh at 38, Andaman & Nicobar at 29 and Uttarakhand at 26. Officials said the current outbreak is quite extensive and lethal with a mortality of up to 15%.
States are currently fighting the menace through goat-pox vaccine which has been authorised for emergency use in absence of specific vaccine for LSD. The Centre hopes the commercialisation of recently released indigenous vaccines - Lumpi-ProVaxInd - may be able to control the spread.
The disease is caused by the lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), which is one of the most important animal poxviruses because of the serious economic impact it can have on those involved in cattle rearing and related activities.
According to experts, the disease is endemic in African and Middle-East countries but has started to slowly spread in Asian countries. It has also been reported from China and Bangladesh.