Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has asked that the government of India should declare the lumpy skin disease in cows as a pandemic.
“Around seven to eight states are affected with the lumpy disease. We demand the GoI to declare the disease as pandemic. The way cows succumb to this disease is painful and unimaginable,” said Gehlot.
He continued if the cow is affected, they cannot be vaccinated as it needs to be done before. At the moment, we don’t have any vaccine or medicine in the country. Now, the experiments have started and soon a vaccine will be made available in the market.
“The situation is worse and if the disease continues to spread, then like Covid, it will affect our cattle. If it is declared pandemic then the state can get relief from disaster funds and effective work could be done. The disease is dangerous and spreading rapidly, even the situation in Gujarat is deteriorating,” he said.
In Rajasthan, around 22,000 animals, mainly cows, have died in Rajasthan due to the infectious lumpy skin disease.
The disease has spread in 29 of 33 districts of the state. Jodhpur, Barmer, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Pali, Sirohi, Bikaner, Churu, Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Ajmer, Nagaur, Bhilwara, Tonk, Jaipur, Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Alwar, Dausa, Chittorgarh, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, Banswara, Rajsamand, Pratapgarh, Dungarpur and Udaipur have all reported cases.
A maximum of 3,672 deaths have been reported from Ganganagar, followed by Jodhpur (2,426), Hanumangarh (2,167), Nagaur (2,099), Barmer (1,973), Jalore (1,765) and Bikaner (1,704). Of the 5,12,140 infected animals, over 4,61,643 have been treated.