November 28, 2008	Friday	Ziqa'ad 29, 1429

PESHAWAR, Nov 27: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, in collaboration with the Frontier government, will launch a programme to cope with the foot and mouth disease (FMD) in cattle.

Officials in the provincial livestock and dairy development department said they were preparing PC-1 of the programme for which financial and technical assistance would be provided by the FAO.

According to them, the programme aims at raising the level of awareness of farmers regarding FMD so they could take precautionary measures to save their cattle from the disease.

Surveillance improvement regarding viral infection would be at the centre of the programme to control the spread of the FMD, a highly infectious disease of cloven-footed animals.

Signs and symptoms of the disease are high temperature and infection at the buckle cavity, dental pads, inability to eat and salivation. It also affects the movement of the affected animal. Officials said the initiative was being launched in view of the massive cross-border movement of animals, especially transportation of buffaloes and cows from India that reached the Frontier province and then Afghanistan.

The FMD, which has been causing heavy production losses in dairy animals and mortality in calves about 20 per cent, is controllable provided animals are vaccinated twice a year. Morbidity of the disease is 90 per cent. The disease is endemic in Pakistan, which experiences its outbreak at the time of Eidul Azha when animals in large number are sold.

About the spread of the FMD, officials said dairy animals kept at commercial colonies were easily attacked due to unhygienic conditions, shortage of sweet water, provision of dry fodder and non-observance of quarantine measures at farm level.

The disease is self-limiting within five to seven days but it drastically reduces milk production capacity that cannot be restored even after the affected animal becomes normal. Its complications can cause other diseases that can cause death.There are seven kinds of the virus, but three of them are found in Pakistan and two doses of polyvalent vaccine manufactured by the Veterinary Research Institute, Lahore, can protect the animal for one year.

“Farmers are uneducated due to which they don’t give attention to the FMD and vaccination. Nevertheless, the cost of two doses of the vaccine is only Rs14,” officials said, adding the programme would include workshops for farmers to inform them about the FMD and its affects on their animals and importance of vaccines.

The vaccination provides full protection against the disease if the recipients do not suffer from low immunity, malnutrition and stomach-related problem. Under the programme, plans would be drawn to hold vaccination camps throughout the province.

At present, samples collected from suspected animals are sent to Islamabad that takes time to get the result. Once the PC-1 was finalised and approved, officials said, measures would be adopted to test the samples locally and put in place a surveillance system to know the magnitude of the disease and take appropriate and timely steps.