Sale of beef banned in Noorpur Thal

Due to lumpy skin disease, a large number of people also stop buying fresh milk

NOORPUR THAL:

The deadly lumpy skin disease has wreaked havoc in Noorpur Thal tehsil, and the tehsil administration has imposed a complete ban on the sale of beef.

Due to this disease, a large number of people have stopped buying milk.

Hotel and restaurant owners have been ordered to sell tea mixed with dried or canned milk only.

Meanwhile, hundreds of animals worth millions of rupees have died in a few days due to the dangerous virus while the severity of the disease is increasing day by day.

Farmers are worried about the absence of concrete measures against the disease at the government level.

The disease has affected animals in all the villages of Thal - Shah Hussain, Katimar, Nawan Sago, Jada and surrounding areas.

More than 350 animals have died in these villages while thousands of others are in a very serious condition.

Farmers said that lumpy skin disease is diagnosed in an animal when it gets emaciated from inside. Purulent rashes appear all over the animal's body in which worms are lodged, and the animal suffers from high fever and dies within a few hours.

When a farmer dissects an animal that is supposed to have died of lumpy skin disease, they find pus all over the animal’s body.

A Noorpur Thal farmer, Rafaqat Naseer, told The Express Tribune that the price of a cow was between Rs200,000 and Rs300,000, and hundreds of cows have died due to this disease. So one can easily calculate the cost the disease has caused the farmers of the tehsil.

He said that the Livestock Department did not have any cure for the disease. Naseer said that the farmers had also tried their traditional remedies but to no avail.

Another farmer, Malik Abdul Majeed, said that many quacks were fleecing the farmers of thousands of rupees and administering fake vaccines.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Dr. Shamsuddin, a senior veterinarian at the Noorpur Thal Veterinary Hospital, said that the lumpy skin diease is a virus that is transmitted from one infected animal to another by insects, flies and mosquitoes. He said that there is no vaccine available in the market to prevent animals from contracting the disease. Protective measures are the only cure for now. So, to protect the animals from the lumpy skin disease, farms must be sprayed with disinfectants, and whenever a farmer suspects an animal to be suffering from the disease that animal must immediately be isolated from the herd.

Considering the gravity of the situation, the farmers have demanded the government to send a team of top veterinarians to Noorpur Thal on an SOS basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2022.