Vaccination schemes on anvil to avert various animal diseases

With the     arrival of monsoon the veterinarians in the district too are pulling up their socks to combat various diseases that affect the animals.

Going by the adage ‘prevention is better than cure’, this rainy season, the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services department in the district has decided to take some precautions to avoid common diseases like Brucellosis, Enterotoxaemia and Foot and mouth diseases.
 
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services department Assistance Director Gurumurthy said that Brucellosis is one of the common disease found in animals during monsoon and the main symptom of this disease caused by Brucell Abortus bacteria is abortion, leading to decrease in milk production.

He said, under National Control Programme on Brucellosis (NCPB) the government had conducted a one-day workshop for master trainers with the Association of Animal Disease Monitoring and Surveillance (ADMAS) on May 24.

Microbiologists of Veterinary Colleges, Animal Health and scientists from Biological Institutions and ADMAS gave a tips in the programme. On June 6 the government once again conducted one-day training for master trainers.

The master trainers will train veterinarians at taluk-level.

Screening and vaccination

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services department Deputy Director Dr K V Halagappa said that as a part of NCPB, milk samples collected from Milk Production Co-operative Societies (MPCS), KMF dairy (pool milk samples) and private milk vendors will be screened.

Halagappa said that the government will be supplying required materials. “Hopefully vaccination  will start from the month of July after screening. Vaccination will be concentrated on female cow aged between four to five months,” he added.

“This project is first of its kind in Karnataka. Two veterinarians from each taluk will be trained as vaccinators. We target to cover about 3, 00,000 cattle of 368 villages of Dakshina Kannada district,” he added.

Enterotoxaemia

Halagappa said that awareness has been created against Enterotoxaemia (ET) at Gram Panchayat level. “Three teams have been formed for every taluk. Vaccination has been started from June for sheep and goats (3 to 4 months of age). It will continue for one more month,” he added.
 
“The department has finished second round of vaccination in February against Foot and Mouth disease under union government sponsored Foot and Mouth Disease Control programme (FMDCP).Third phase of vaccination will start from September,” Halagappa said.

This year department will conduct animal census from September 15 to collect information about the various cattle and poultry breeds, he said.