Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule on Monday asked the government to come up with a centralised plan to revive the dairy economy which has been hit hard by the lumpy skin disease.

The Baramati MP also sought comprehensive research to make vaccines for the disease so that its spread can be contained in the future.

“Lumpy disease has been quite disastrous this year on our agrarian economy. A total of 1,55,724 cattle have died so far and 29,52,233 have been severely affected across the country,” Ms. Sule said in the Lok Sabha.  

Also read : 20,000 cattle succumb to LSD in Maharashtra

The NCP MP said that dairy farmers are at a constant economic strain due to the loss of cattle, lowered milk production from infected but cured ones and are bearing extra cost to provide extensive diet facilities and medication to the affected cattle to prevent them from dying.

“As the loss is huge and so severely spread across the country, a centralised plan is needed from the government to revive dairy economy,” she said.

She asked the government to give adequate compensation, medical assistance, and free and subsidised fodder to the affected farmers at the earliest.

“Several researches have revealed that the virus is undergoing mutations inside the host and no long-term vaccine can be guaranteed. As Lumpy Skin Disease outbreaks occur in epidemics several years apart, a comprehensive research should be carried out to study its behaviour to make vaccines so that in future, we can minimise and contain its spread in first few days,” she said.

Source : The Hindu Dec 19th 2022