Lumpy Skin Disease Back In Odisha; SOA Recommends Immediate Vaccination

Bhubaneswar: Lumpy skin disease (LSD) has re-emerged in Odisha, SOA-run Institute of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry (IVSAH) said on Tuesday.

The contagious disease, which is transmitted by agents like blood-sucking fly, tick and Aedes mosquito, causes immense loss to livestock farmers and keepers on account of death of animals, expenses on treatment and more than 20 per cent reduction in milk production, IVSAH Dean Prof. Bramhadev Pattnaik informed.

Though initially confined to Africa, LSD spread to other continents subsequently. The disease was epidemiologically ascertained to have travelled to Odisha, post Fani, from Bangladesh through Jharkhand, Prof. Pattnaik said.

The virus, also known to get transmitted through contaminated feed and water, had made a re-appearance in Khurda and Puri districts after a gap of about three-and-a-half years.

LSD causes severe skin nodules in animals, which subsequently turn into open wounds accompanied by high fever.

LSD vaccine is being jointly developed by National Research Centre for Equine (NRCE) Hisar and Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) Bareilly. SOA is also working on development of a vaccine against the disease.

But since LSD vaccine it is yet to be released in the market, Prof. Pattnaik opined that there’s an urgent need to vaccinate the animals with double-dose goat vaccine to prevent the disease from spreading.

He also said that bio-security measures like immediate isolation of affected cattle and use of mosquito and fly repellant need to be taken.

IVSAH has constituted an LDS surveillance team which includes Prof. Pattnaik, Prof. B B Dash, Dr H K Khuntia, Dr Radha Mohan, Dr Gyana Pattnaik and Dr D N Paul. The research team comprises Dr Sarita, Dr Sunil and Dr Sanjeev.

The virus was isolated in Odisha in 2019 by two Indian Council of Agricultural Research-run institutes — National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology (NIVEDI) Bengaluru and National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) Bhopal — and it was found to be akin to the African strain, Dr Balaram Sahu, Assistant Professor in IVSAH department of Microbiology, said.