Govt to take action against rising cases of lumpy skin disease in West Bengal

The department of animal husbandry and dairying responded swiftly and has taken all necessary steps to provide technical and financial support in close co-ordination with the state and district officials of the department concerned.

There are no deaths of cattle due to LSD in Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Around 400 unvaccinated cattle in Darjeeling and 2,000 in Kalimpong were infected; out of which 200 and 1,200 respectively have already recovered, the government said in a statement.

Treatment of other infected cattle is underway including ring vaccination of cattle in affected areas to check the spread of the disease. There are no reports of LSD in sheep or goats. In both districts, the infection is reported mainly in unvaccinated cattle. However, the situation is under control.

The Department has been implementing various measures for control of the disease including adaptation of surveillance strategy, launch of vaccination programme etc. The central team consisting of one officer each from Northeastern Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (NERDDL), Guwahati and Eastern Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ERDDL) Kolkata has been asked to visit the affected area to assess the ground situation and to support the state AHD for control and containment of LSD in definite timeline.

Lumpy skin disease is a highly contagious viral disease noticed in cattle and buffaloes and does not affect humans. It causes relatively low mortality. The disease can result in animal welfare issues and significant production losses. The disease first broke out in India in 2022 that resulted in over 97,000 cattle deaths during three months till September. The outbreak was initially observed in Gujarat and Rajasthan and affected cattle in 15 states across the country in the same time span.