In Punjab, nearly 18,000 cattle died due to lumpy skin disease last year, reveals RTI

While the state has received 9,26,592 LSD vaccine doses, to date 9,16,420 cattle have been vaccinated by the department, the RTI data revealed, adding that nearly 10 lakh doses per annum are required for the state.

The RTI data revealed that as many as 2,345 bovine deaths were reported from Bathinda out of 5,346 cattle affected by LSD. While Moga and Ludhiana reported 2,272 and 2,140 cattle deaths, respectively, the number of bovines affected by LSD in these two districts were 9,306 and 14,059, respectively.

Also, 1,938, 1,216, 1,125, 1,010, 809, 629, 486, 483, 474, 424, 380, 371, 364, 347, 189, 181, 163, 147, and 87 cattle deaths were reported from Sangrur, Muktsar, Patiala, Mansa, Barnala, Amritsar, Rupnagar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Faridkot, Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib, Kapurthala, Fazilka, Pathankot, and Nawanshahr, respectively, during the same period.

At 31,908 bovines, Patiala topped the LSD-affected cattle list, followed by Hoshiarpur (20,983), Jalandhar (8,819), Mansa (8,744) and Sangrur where 8,091 cattle were affected by LSD, the RTI data revealed, adding that the rest of the districts in the state reported somewhere between 3,000 and 7,000.

The maximum number of cattle was vaccinated in Ludhiana where 89,163 bovines were administered the LSD vaccine dose, followed by Sangrur (68, 282) and Hoshiarpur (66,863), Jalandhar (61,781), Gurdaspur (60,258), Patiala (50, 853), Amritsar (57,567), and Faridkot where 46,077 cattle were vaccinated, the RTI data showed.

The state had spent Rs 1.37 crore on the treatment of the LSD-affected cattle, the RTI data showed.
Dhiman said that the grant released by the government for the treatment of LSD-hit cattle across the state was too meagre. There are several poor people who rear 2-3 bovines to earn their living and many such farmers have suffered huge losses due to the death of their cattle.

The government must pay Rs 30,000 to each such farmer whose bovines have died due to LSD, Dhiman added.

Dr Ram Pal Mittal, Director of Punjab Animal Husbandry Department, told The Indian Express that this disease was reported in the state from July (2022) onwards and with efforts of the Punjab government, the department managed to control it in a couple of months. He said that nearly 18,000 cattle deaths were reported in the state then, but now there is not a single LSD case in the state.

The RTI data also revealed that 662 posts of veterinary inspectors in the state are lying vacant out of a total of 2,010 posts.