Lumpy skin disease kills 7,500 cattle

190,000 animals infected across country

ISLAMABAD:

The lumpy skin disease is rapidly spreading among the cattle across the country as 190,000 of them have been infected while 7,500 have died so far.

The recent rain-induced floods in the country have exasperated the situation.

According to the details available with The Express Tribune, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) province is the worst hit by the disease. A total of 4,700 animals of the 74,590 infected have died.

In Punjab, more than 35,000 animals have been infected of which 1,242 have died.

In Sindh, 571 animals of the total 53,668 infected have died.

In Balochistan, 22,225 animals are infected of which 469 have died.

In Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 356 of the 6,351 infected animals have died.

Pakistan has 100 million cattle population of which a little over 7.3 million have been vaccinated against the bovine disease. Sindh’s livestock researchers have managed to develop the vaccine. The development of the vaccine was made possible with Turkish support as the Sindh government had imported nearly four million LSD doses from Turkey with the goal to not only save the animals but also to start its local production. Support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations further accelerated the process. More than 141,000 animals have recovered from the disease, and according to researchers, the recovery rate appears to be good enough.