KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Livestock Abdul Bari Pitafi on Tuesday said that the lumpy skin disease (LSD) had reached Punjab from Sindh and affected a significant number of cattle in Sadiqabad.

Speaking at a press conference at the Sindh Assembly’s committee room, he urged other provincial governments to learn from Sindh’s experience and take effective measures to contain the spread of the disease.

The minister regretted the long delay on part of the federal government in notifying the disease and “exaggerated media focus on the outbreak” which, he said, led to a sharp decline in milk and meat prices.

“We had been in contact with the federal government on LSD since November 2021, asking it to notify the disease, which it finally did after four months in March,” he said, adding that early disease identification could have helped initiate measures to contain it in Sindh.

On vaccine import, he said half of the total officially approved amount of Rs400 million had been released and the vaccine was being imported in phases.

In the first phase, the government had imported 1.1m doses of LSD vaccine out of the 1.9m doses planned to be imported in the initial phase. The rest would arrive on Friday. Another batch of 1.9m doses would be imported as soon as funds were released.

“The vaccination process will be completed in 20 days whereas production of LSD vaccine is expected to start in eight months,” he said in reply to a question.

He added that three to four companies had been registered in the country for vaccine import.

Sharing LSD data, the minister said that over 16,000 animals had recovered while 336 died.

The department, he said, had supplied vaccine doses to all districts and arranged a total of 1,045 teams for vaccination, which would be carried out free-of-cost.

Cases in Sadiqabad

According to Mr Pitafi, LSD has reached Punjab from Sindh and affected a significant number of cattle in Sadiqabad. “The federal government must take the outbreak seriously. Otherwise it will negatively impact traders and the country’s exports.”

In his remarks, livestock director general Dr Nazeer Kalhoro said localised conditions were contributing to the spread of the disease in certain districts.

About the vaccination process currently under way, Dr Kalhoro said teams had been instructed to wait for at least 10 to 15 days to conduct vaccination at an affected farm.

“It’s a live virus vaccine that can aggravate the outbreak if caution is not adopted and vaccination is carried out indiscriminately. Also, cattle that have recovered from the disease will not be vaccinated as they have developed life-time immunity against LSD,” he explained.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2022