15 cases of lumpy skin disease reported in Lahore

LAHORE: Punjab’s Livestock department has announced 15 more cases of Lumpy Skin Disease at Sue Asil locality of Lahore, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Provincial livestock department has said that emergency has been declared in the radius of four kilometres around Sue Asil.

“The department has launched vaccination of animals in the area,” officials said.

“Provincial department has also initiated screening of the livestock infected by the Lumpy Skin Disease,” according to officials.

Originally found in Africa, lumpy skin disease, a viral infection of cattle, has also spread to countries in the Middle East, Asia, and eastern Europe, experts said.

The disease is transmitted by blood-feeding insects, such as certain species of flies and mosquitoes, or ticks. It causes fever, nodules beneath the skin and can also lead to death, according to experts.

While the country has managed to confine an outbreak of lumpy skin disease there are fears a second wave ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha.

The viral disease spread by insects can seriously affect cows’ milk production and damage reproductive organs, say animal health experts.

Vaccines arrived from Turkey in early April, five months after the first reported cases in Pakistan, and within two weeks of free-of-charge administration to 1.9 million cattle, the disease had begun to subside.