Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan directed the officials that the cattle being brought into MP from other states should be banned and that extra precaution should be taken in the adjoining areas of the disease-affected districts.
Over 2,100 cattle were found infected with the Lumpy skin disease across 10 districts of Madhya Pradesh, prompting the administration to ban the transportation of bovine animals in the affected parts of the state.
The authorities have already banned the transportation of cattle in the affected areas and districts. Officials said that the major symptoms of this infectious viral disease affecting cattle, are fever, nasal and lacrimal discharge, ulcers in the eye, swollen lymph nodes and a drop in milk production. The lumpy skin disease infects only cows and buffaloes. There is no danger to humans in using milk from animals that do not have the symptoms of lumpy.
The disease has been confirmed in Ratlam, Ujjain, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Betul, Indore and Khandwa districts, they said. The symptoms of this disease have also been reported in animals in Dhar, Burhanpur, Jhabua, the officials said.
“As many as 2,171 cattle have been affected by this disease across 10 districts of state. Of these, the health of 1,717 animals has improved. So far 77, 534 animals have been vaccinated,” an official said.
The outbreak of the disease has been reported in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu-Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
Since the disease is infectious, it is important to take preventive measures such as proper cleanliness of cowsheds and segregation of healthy animals from infected ones, experts have said.
Meanwhile, as the death toll of cattle from Lumpy Skin Disease reached 57,000 the Indian Government has asked states to boost vaccination process in order to control the disease. India, the world’s largest milk producer, had a cattle population of 192.5 million in 2019, as per the 19th Livestock census.