The government has ordered four million vaccine doses from Turkey to fight lumpy skin disease (LSD) that has affected thousands of animals, especially in Sindh province.
LSD was first reported in Jamshoro district last November. Since then, 31,124 animals have been infected in the province of which 285 have died.
LSD is a serious threat to livestock and all possible preventive measures should be adopted against this viral disease which is transmitted by blood-feeding insects, such as certain species of flies and mosquitoes, or ticks.
Whilst ensuring early arrival of the vaccine, a proper mechanism should be evolved in cooperation with the district administrations to administer the vaccines to the cows to avoid its further spread.
Since the disease has frightened milk consumers, the dairy farmers are also suffering heavy losses due to decline in the sale of milk.
Hence it is also important to raise necessary awareness amongst the people about the LSD through a special campaign.
According to Aga Khan University Hospital, the country’s leading medical institution, the infection does not cause human disease.
The report citing the hospital study “Emerging Infection Alert: Lumpy Skin Disease said that a thorough investigation showed that consuming flesh and milk of affected animals does not transmit the illnesses to humans.
However, the hospital urged food safety experts to encourage people to consume only pasteurized or well-boiled milk, its by-products and well-cooked meat.
Indeed the people should pay heed to this advice. At the same time, we will also ask the Sindh government to provide compensation to the dairy farmers who have lost their cows to the disease.
Pakistan is one of the top milk producing countries in the world and it is really unfortunate that we have to import the vaccine to treat the LSD.
We should move towards local manufacturing of anti-LSD vaccine which will be cheaper than the imported one and will continue to protect our cattle from this disease in future.
