PANJIM: In spite of Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) flaring up in the neighbouring States, the State government has no plan of imposing a ban on inter-State transportation of cattle into the State.
The ban was lifted long back and there is no plan to impose it as of now, an official of Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services (AHVS) said.
Meanwhile, another official said as many as samples of six cattle have been found to be positive for Lumpy Skin disease recently. The samples were sent to Western Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Pune, in the month of July this year, the official told O Heraldo.
Four more samples have been sent to the same institute to uncertain whether the cattle suffer from the dreaded disease or not.
Out of the cattle whose samples were found to be positive, three were from organised farming while the same number of cattle from backyard farms. Five of them were in the age bracket of 45 days to 9 months while one was six-years.
Last year, 39 cattle were found to be positive for the disease and out of them, one calf had died, the official said.
The State government has purchased 69,200 doses of vaccines from private suppliers and a third round of vaccination has been taken up.
Till date, 21,895 cattle have been vaccinated, the official said, adding the cattle are vaccinated after a gap of six months.
The State had extended the ban on the transportation of milch animals, except buffaloes, from other States to check the spread of the disease in January this year. The ban was imposed as a precautionary measure, LSD is a viral infection affecting bovines and is spread by pests like ticks, mosquitoes and other blood sucking pests and causes fever and nodules on the skin resulting in the death of cattle.
A sizable number of cattle were found to be positive in Karnataka recently while fresh round outbreak of disease have been reported in Ahmednagar, Nasik and Jalgaon districts of Maharashtra.
