DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Haryana Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister, Sh. J. P Dalal said that 5 lakh vaccines have been ordered for the prevention of Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) in animals and the vaccine will arrive by today evening. He said that this vaccine is being brought by airlift for immediate vaccination to animals so that the cattle owners will not face huge loss. Dalal was responding to the Calling Attention Motion moved during the on-going Monsoon Session in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha here today. He said that the departments are concerned for the prevention of this disease as it is a viral disease and various steps are being taken to prevent it. He said that this disease has less impact in Haryana as compared to Punjab and Rajasthan. The Department has issued advisory regarding this disease that the movement of animals and cattle fairs should be restricted, anti-mosquito medicines should be sprayed. He said that inter-state movement of animals should also be restricted. He said that as far as the posting of VLDA in Sirsa is concerned, it is an online process. Soon the veterinary doctors/VLDA will be made available there. He said that the concerned Deputy Commissioners have been directed to take preventive measures by sprinkling and fogging on animals. He further said that the Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is a viral disease. The virus belongs to pox family. Lumpy Skin Disease is African in origin and prevalent in most African countries. This disease is thought to have originated in Zambia from where it spread to South Africa. Since 2012 it has spread rapidly though the Middle East, South East, Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan the recently outbreak reported are from, Bangladesh (2019), China (2019), Bhutan (2020), Nepal (2020) and India (August, 2021). During current year major affected States in country are Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab. In Haryana state the disease is at initial stage and control and containment measures are being taken by Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department. He said that Lumpy Skin Disease affects mainly cattle. It is a non-Zoonotic disease. LSD virus is highly host specific and causes disease mainly in cattle. Cross bred cattle exhibit higher mortality due to Lumpy Skin Disease when compared with indigenous cattle. Mortality in animals is 1 to 5%. Symptoms of the diseases include fever, loss in milk production, nodules on the skin, nasal and eye discharge etc. Primary route of transmission of the disease is through biting insects like mosquitoes, flies and ticks. Rare transmission is from nasal discharge/contaminated feed and water. Being a viral disease animals are treated only symptomatically based on symptoms like administering medicines for fever, anti-inflammatory, pain-killers and dressing of wounds. Animal suffering from this disease got recovered within 2 - 3 days if treatment is started at initial stage. Farmers are being advised to control the population of flies and mosquito, which is major factor for spread of disease. Isolation of affected animals from other animals is of utmost importance. Calves can be fed the milk of their affected mother through bottle only after boiling. He said that the disease is Non-Zoonotic i.e. it does not spread from animal to humans so nothing to fear about while taking care of sick animals. Milk of affected animals can be consumed by human after boiling. Out of the total 62.92 lakh bovine (buffalo and bovine) animals in the state, 19.32 lakh are bovines. There is a risk of spreading this disease in these cows. In the current year, preliminary reports of LSD were given from Yamunanagar district in the last week of July, 2022. Giving a brief description of the total number of cases till August 08, 2022, he said that the number of affected villages is 482, the number of affected cattle is 6135, the number of buffalo affected is zero. (editor@dailyworld.in)