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KARACHI: Pakistan has ordered four million vaccine doses from Turkey and is likely to receive the first tranche by the end of the week to fight lumpy skin disease (LSD) that has affected thousands of animals in Sindh province and killed 285 of them, said a government official on Tuesday.
First observed in 1929 in Zambia, LSD is a viral infection that causes fever and multiple nodules on the skin and mucous membranes of animals. The disease is transmitted by bloodsucking insects like ticks and mosquitoes and can also prove fatal. Doctors say the disease does not affect people.
LSD was first reported in Pakistan’s Jamshoro district in Sindh last November. Since then, 31,124 animals have been infected in the province of which 285 have died.
In Karachi, the country’s largest metropolis, which is also the capital of Sindh province, 17,423 cows have been affected and 37 of them have died. The virus has not affected any buffaloes, the official said.
“After getting approval from DRAP [Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan] we have placed an order of four million doses of vaccine from Turkey through an approved company and the first tranche of one million is scheduled to arrive on Saturday,” Dr. Nazeer Hussain Kalhoro, director general of livestock in the Sindh administration, told Arab News.
He added the remaining three million doses would arrive in three installments with a gap of one week each.
“All vaccines will arrive within a four-week time and administered to cows within this period to treat the disease,” he informed.
Kalhoro said DRAP had approved four companies and the order was placed with the one offering lowest rates, adding the vaccine was purchased at Rs250 while its price in the local market was between Rs1,000 and Rs2,000.
He maintained a comprehensive plan had been made to inoculate the livestock in the province, and arrangements had been made to store vaccines at the required temperature.
Earlier this month, DRAP said it had allowed two companies in Sindh and Punjab to import vaccines to deal with lumpy skin disease.
Dairy farmers in Karachi told Arab News earlier this month they were suffering huge losses due to a decline in the sale of milk.
The accompanying symptoms of the disease include much lower milk production.
“The disease has frightened milk consumers and our sales have sharply declined by about two million liters from 4.5 million liters that we previously supplied to the city,” said Shakir Umar Gujjar, president Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association.
Meat merchants also said they had witnessed a decrease in their revenue since scared buyers had been abstaining from making purchases.
“Around 75 percent of meat shops in Karachi have not been operating,” Sikandar Iqbal Qureshi, general secretary of Meat Merchants Welfare Association, told Arab News. “The rest of the 25 percent have remained open only to sell about five to 10 kilograms per day.”