Lumpy virus in India / Lumpy virus has claimed the lives of 17000 cows in the country so far the death toll of cows in Rajasthan has crossed 14 thousand.

Lumpy virus in India: During the last one month in India, more than 17 thousand domestic animals have died due to lumpy skin disease, most of which are cows. This deadly virus is killing cattle in 8 states of the country including Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab. Due to the lumpi virus, the production of about one lakh liters of milk has decreased daily in Gujarat alone. The highest number of cows have died in Rajasthan, the figure has crossed 14 thousand.

Question 1: What is Lumpy Skin Disease or LSD?

Answer: Lumpy skin disease is a disease caused by a virus called capripox in cattle like cows and buffaloes. It spreads very fast from one animal to another. This virus is similar to the virus responsible for viral infections such as goat pox in goats and sheep pox in sheep. Capripox comes from the same poxviridae virus family that causes diseases such as smallpox and monkeypox.

Question 2: How dangerous is the lumpy virus?

Answer: Health experts are considering lumpi as a major threat to cattle around the world. This makes cows more sick. However, buffaloes, horses, camels, giraffes and deer can also fall ill. Cows die more from this virus than buffaloes because the natural immunity of buffaloes is more than that of cows.

Question 3: How does LSD spread?

Answer: Lumpy is a contagious disease. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), lumpi disease is a smallpox-like disease spread by organisms such as mosquitoes, flies, lice and fleas. According to experts, this disease also spreads through movement of animals from one place to another. It spreads rapidly in rain.

Question 4: What are the symptoms and effects of lumpi disease?

Answer: High fever and lumps on the body are the biggest symptoms of this disease. Infertility can occur in sick animals and this also reduces their milk production capacity.

How these symptoms appear in infected cattle, let us understand…

• It takes 4-7 days for symptoms to appear after infection. This is called the incubation period.
• In the beginning, the nose of cows or buffalo starts running, water starts flowing from the eyes and saliva starts falling from the mouth.
• This is followed by a high fever, which can last for about a week.
• Then lumps of 10-50 mm roundness come out on the body of the animal. Along with this, swelling also comes in his body.
• The animal stops eating because it starts having trouble chewing and swallowing. This reduces the production of milk.
• Cows that give more milk are more prone to lumpy because their physical and mental strength goes into milk production, making them weak.
• Sometimes cows suffering from lumpi have deep wounds in one or both eyes, which puts them at risk of going blind.
• Sometimes smallpox lesions occur throughout the digestive, respiratory and almost all internal organs of the body.
• Infertility and abortion problems are seen in animals. The animal becomes very weak.
• These symptoms persist for 5 weeks. If not treated, death can also occur.
• Lumpy infected cattle take two weeks to a month to recover.
• At the same time, it takes about 6 months for a cattle severely infected with this disease to fully recover from the virus.

Question 5: What is the probability of dying from Lumpy virus?

Answer: The rate of transmission of lumpy virus from one animal to another is 45%, but the death rate is 5 to 10%. According to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), the mortality rate in this disease is up to 5%. According to the FAO, the rate of death from lumpi is less than 10%.

Question 6: Can lumpi spread to humans?

no answer. Lumpy virus is not a zoonotic virus that spreads from animals to humans.

Question 7: Is it safe to drink the milk of a lumpy infected animal?

Answer: According to experts, by heating such milk to 100 degree centigrade, that is, boiling it well, the viruses present in it are eliminated. So far, there has been no case of humans becoming ill after consuming the milk of an animal infected with lumpi.

Question 8: What is the treatment of lumpi?

Answer: There is no specific antiviral drug available for this. The only way to prevent it from spreading is to isolate the infected cow and buffalo for at least 28 days. During this time their symptoms should be treated.

The most attention should be taken to the lumps on the body as it can lead to other infections and pneumonia. Anti-inflammatory painkillers such as paracetamol are used to maintain the appetite of infected animals.

Question 9: How is lumpi being controlled in India?

Answer: In India, currently, the gotpox-virus vaccine is being administered to protect against lumpi. The National Dairy Development Board has sent 2.8 million doses of Gote Pox Vaccine to Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab to prevent lumpi.

The central government has launched a new indigenous vaccine for Lumpi named Lumpi-ProBackend. It has been developed by the Hisar and Bareilly units of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Question 10: What is the impact of this disease in the country?

Answer: A large number of cows are dying due to the spread of lumpi disease in India. Due to this the production of milk has decreased in many states. In Gujarat alone, the production of 1 lakh liters of milk per day has come down. The milk production of the rest of the affected states has also come down by 10-15%.

An assessment was made by the UN body FOA soon after Lumpi arrived. According to this, there can be a loss of about 11 thousand crores in India and South East Asia due to lumpy disease.