Over 23,000 cows affected by lumpy skin disease in Sindh, says minister

Sindh Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Abdul Bari Khan Pitafi has said the lumpy skin disease (LSD) has so far been found in 23,227 animals in the province, 136 of whom have died.

Addressing a press conference at the Sindh Assembly on Monday, he said the disease had affected 16,000 cows in Karachi, and the detection rate in the province was 0.9 per cent. Pitafi said the disease had been present in the world for the past 100 years, but its first case in Sindh was reported in November last year.

He said they had contacted the federal government to formally notify the occurrence of the disease. The Sindh government had asked the Centre to allow it to import the anti-LSD vaccine, but the permission was not timely granted, he said and told journalists that the livestock department had declared an emergency and constituted a task force after the alarming increase in LSD cases.

The minister said three foreign companies – two Turkish and one Egyptian – had been approached with orders after the Centre granted one-time permission to the Sindh government for the import of vaccines to control the disease.

Hoping that the vaccine would soon reach Pakistan, the minister said the Sindh livestock department had requested the Punjab government to provide the Goatpox Vaccine to save cattle in the province.

He said standard operating procedures had also been devised for livestock farming, and the municipal commissioners had been directed to start a fumigation campaign against mosquitoes at livestock farms.