PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday decided to launch a special vaccination campaign to control the lumpy skin disease (LSD).
“Seven million cattle will be vaccinated against the lumpy skin disease,” said an official communique, adding, the decision was made at a meeting held regarding Lumpy Skin disease here with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair. The meeting, it added, reviewed the latest situation of the disease across the province and important decisions were made regarding the future course of action to prevent the spread of LSD. It was decided to ensure availability of trained manpower to vaccinate maximum cattle in the shortest possible time.
The chief minister directed the Finance Department to provide the required funds for the purchase of vaccines on priority basis and said that timely prevention of lumpy skin disease was the first priority of the government. He further directed that orders for the purchase of vaccines should be placed immediately.
Livestock, he said, was the only source of income for most of the people in the province and incase of further spread of LSD, huge damage would be inflicted so timely and effective measures need to be taken to protect the people from this possible damage.
The chief minister also directed the Livestock Department, District administration and other relevant authorities to immediately prepare a workable plan to effectively control LSD and said that the provincial government would provide all the financial resources needed to prevent the disease. While briefing the meeting regarding the measures taken by the livestock department to prevent lumpy skin disease, it was told that more than 460,000 cases of the disease have been reported so far.