BAHAWALNAGAR: Scores of cattle breeders held a protest against the district administration and livestock department at Chak Jodheka on Friday, alleging that hundreds of their cattle died of the lumpy skin disease within the last three weeks due the apathy of the department, which failed to provide vaccination against the viral disease despite being timely informed by them.

The protesters said that when their cattle were first infected with the disease about three weeks back they immediately approached the district administration and the livestock department. However, they bemoaned, neither any livestock official nor any other official concerned visited the village to treat or vaccinate the cattle despite repeated complaints.

The villagers said the cattle were their bread and butter and they would annually get the return of their labour by selling sacrificial animals on Eidul Azha, which was round the corner.

They tried their best to treat their cattle on their own by hiring private veterinary doctors and using costly medicines but to no avail and more than 300 cows worth millions died within three weeks.

They bemoaned that the disease was still spreading in the area and feared that it would eliminate a large number of cattle if the livestock department did not take any serious measures to control it. They demanded Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz initiate a survey in the affected areas and compensate the victims.

Livestock Additional Director Dr Rizwana Chaudhry told Dawn a livestock team would visit the affected areas and vaccinate the animals.

She said the country had no vaccination to cure the lumpy skin disease and a vaccine called ‘goat pox’ was being used as an alternative which was yielding encouraging results. She said the department was facing a lack of funds that’s why ‘goat pox’ was not available in some areas.

Ms Chaudhry said the spread of the disease had affected more than 1,100 cattle, most of them cows, within two months in the district and added that 42,000 animals had been vaccinated by the livestock teams across the district, so far.

She said the cattle farmers could prevent further spread of the disease by taking precautionary measures and awareness sessions by the department were being conducted in this regard across the district.

She said that cattle owners should immediately isolate their infected animals from the rest of the herd and avoid taking their cattle to open pastures.

Furthermore, she suggested, the farmers should not let their animals mix with cattle of other villages during grazing and try not to let their animals drink water from the same pond with other animals.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2022