Lumpy Skin Disease kills 6,000 bovines, over 1.71 lakh infected in Gujarat

In the past two months over 6,000 bovines, mostly cows, have been killed in the deadly Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) outbreak in Gujarat, with Kutch as its epicenter. Government officials said that till Saturday, 1.71 lakh bovines were reported to have been infected with the virus.

Officials of the state's animal husbandry department said that the spread of the virus has slowed down over the past couple of weeks following several measures including a large-scale vaccination drive. Till Saturday, officials said, 60 lakh bovines were vaccinated in the state. Nearly 200 veterinary officers and 550 livestock inspectors were involved in the treatment and vaccination works.

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Districts such as Kutch, Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Rajkot, Porbandar, Surendranagar, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad, Junagadh in the Saurashtra region and Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Patan in north Gujarat while Panchmahal in central Gujarat have reported most of the cases.

"We have brought the situation under control. The number of active cases at present is about 3000 which are being taken care of by our teams," an officer with the animal husbandry department said, requesting anonymity. LSD, a viral infection, is spread by mosquitoes, flies, and wasps among others or by contaminated food, water or direct contact.

The issue of livestock, especially the cows, has been rocking the ruling government with back to back setbacks. The LSD outbreak had sent the BJP government into a tizzy with Assembly barely a few months away. The video clips of bovines getting killed by the virus and their mass burials had angered the public.

However, dairy cooperatives in the state have maintained that the impact on milk production was less than 0.5 per cent.

While the state government was trying to handle the situation, the pastoral community (Maldharis) also came out in the open, confronting the Bhupendra Patel-led BJP government over its legislation to control the stray cattle menace in urban areas. The state government earlier this week was forced to withdraw the 'Gujarat Cattle Control (Keeping and Moving) In Urban Areas Bill" in view of the agitation by Maldharis.

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The bill had some stringent provisions for letting out cattle on roads in cities, mandatory tagging of cattle by owners, prohibition of the sale of fodder in non-designated areas in cities and a Rs 50,000 fine for assaulting officials involved in catching stray cattle. Similarly, gaushala and panjrapole operators have also started agitating against the government for not distributing funds which it had announced in the budget.

From Friday, several gaushala and panjrapole administrators let their cattle out on roads and government offices to mark their protest. The administrators are reasoning that in March this year, the state government announced a provision of Rs500 crore for cows but it hasn't released the funds yet.

"Earlier, we were dependent on donors but since the announcement of Rs500 crore funds, many of our donors have stopped contributing citing the special provision. We made representation to the government several times and apprised them without our situation but to no avail. This has compelled us to protest," said Jagdish Solanki, media in-charge of Banaskantha Gaushala Panjrople Federation.