JOIN USCovid-19: Dairy animals to undergo quarantine in Jammu and Kashmir
The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to put dairy animals imported from other states in quarantine upon their arrival in the union territory (UT) to ensure that farmers get disease-free animals.
Under the newly issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), the Department of Animal and Sheep Husbandry has ordered disease surveillance, health profiling, and verification of the supplier and the buyer.
As per officials, the government took these measures to ensure disease-free animals reach Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the outbreak of Covid-19.
“The buyer shall register at Animal Husbandry Post Lakhanpur for purchase, transportation of dairy animals from outside J&K. After registration, the farmer shall procure the dairy animals, which, after reaching Lakhanpur, shall be quarantined for disease surveillance and to check the health profile of animals,” an order issued by Principal Secretary, Animal/ Sheep Husbandry and Fisheries, Navin K Chaudhary, reads.
The order says a fitness certificate shall be given to the farmer importing the dairy animal from outside Jammu and Kashmir. “The animals shall be tagged, vaccinated and fitness certificate will be issued within minimum possible time,” it added.
The demand for dairy animals in Jammu and Kashmir has increased after the government announced a 50% subsidy on the purchase of animals. After the implementation of the scheme, there has been an immense flow of dairy animals from outside states to the union territory.
Moreover, the government has also called for checking the illegal trafficking of dairy animals to the valley.
In April, J&K Wildlife department had decided to implement a tightened lockdown in the peripheries of wildlife zones and zoos in the Valley to prevent any transmission of the novel coronavirus from humans to animals. The move came after the report of a tiger housed in Bronx Zoo, New York, contracting the deadly virus.