Lumpy skin disease

The outbreak of lumpy skin disease in cattle in Sindh has caused much scare and rumours because the dangerous illness has appeared in Pakistan for the first time. This is why vaccines for treatment of the disease were unavailable in the country. Now the provincial government has launched a vaccination campaign to protect cattle, especially cows, from the disease. Imported vaccines have started to arrive in the provincial capital. The vaccines need to be administered with caution under the supervision of qualified vets.

The lumpy skin illness is a viral dangerous disease. According to vet experts, it mostly affects cows, and does not pose danger to buffaloes. At least laymen don’t know whether it affects bulls, goats and other cattle. For them, it is sufficient to know that so far there is no scare about the particular virus threatening the aforementioned categories of livestock. The virus mainly spreads through mosquitoes. If a mosquito bites a diseased cow, and if the same mosquito bites healthy cows, it could infect the latter. Air and water too are fast carriers of the virus. So far more than 32,000 cases have been reported in Sindh, and 336 deaths have occurred. In the beginning, the Karachi region was the worst hit. Now, officials say, there has been a marked improvement in the disease situation here with the adoption of preventive measures like protection of cattle from mosquitoes, maintaining a clean environment in order to stop breeding of mosquitoes and other harmful insects, and raising the natural immunity of affected cows by giving them multivitamins, and also ensuring cleanliness in cattle pens and their surroundings.

There is need to ensure that cattle pens maintain cleanliness and adopt all safety measure even after the lumpy skin disease is dealt with; and the authorities must play their role in the context. After all it is a matter of public health and safety.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2022.

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