The vaccination drive to control lumpy skin disease in cattle and buffaloes has not picked up pace in Koshi Province.

Only about 3.33 percent of the total cattle and buffaloes have been administered vaccines against lumpy skin in the province so far. According to the Directorate of Livestock and Fishery Development in Koshi, there are 2,099,497 cattle, 885,839 buffaloes and 18,010 yaks in the province. Among them, only 100,371 quadrupeds of 11 districts have been vaccinated as of July 13.

The vaccination drive is yet to begin in Tehrathum, Sankhuwasabha and Bhojpur districts.

Lumpy skin is a viral infection that afflicts cattle and buffaloes. Some of the disease’s symptoms are swelling around the neck, wounds around the tail, belly, and udder, sores forming and water oozing from the wounds, nodules on the skin, and pus in the mouth. The disease is transmitted through bites of mosquitoes, flies, and other insects.

Lumpy skin disease was detected in Sundar Haraicha of Morang district for the first time in the country in July 2020. The viral disease, according to veterinarians, has been spreading across the nation as the government did not launch the vaccination campaign immediately.

According to Purushottam Pandey, an officer at the directorate, around 214, 645 animals have been affected in Koshi Province so far. “A total of 4,814 cattle and buffaloes have died in the province so far,” he added.

Veterinarians, according to Pandey, have been mobilised in the settlements to control the disease. “They help isolate the infected animals, sanitise animal sheds, dress the wounds on infected animals and provide medicines,” said Pandey. He said the vaccination drive prioritised calves in the first phase. “The vaccines are administered to the calves first and to the adult cattle in the second phase. The drive is currently going on in 11 districts and it will be commenced soon in three remaining districts,” said Pandey.

The Department of Livestock Service provided Rs100,000 to each local unit. The local bodies purchased the vaccines with the budget and launched the vaccination drive. The Koshi Province government also released Rs500,000 each to eight Livestock Service Expert Service Centres in the province. The Directorate has purchased medicines and vaccines of around Rs2.5 million to control the disease.

The federal government has permitted the use of Live LSD produced in Tanzania, Lumpy Shield-N produced in Jordan and Lumpy Vac made in Turkey.

“The vaccines are not enough now. Several private firms have been supplying the vaccines approved by the government,” said Pashupati Dhungana, chief of the directorate. He claimed that the vaccination drive could not be effective as the local units did not take it seriously. According to him, the budget of the last fiscal year is being spent to control the disease. “The disease control drive will gather momentum with the allocation of necessary budget in the current fiscal year 2023-24,” said Dhungana.

The federal government has a policy to launch the disease control programme through the local units. “The local units are carrying out the vaccination drive by purchasing the vaccines. The federal and provincial governments will support the local units to control the disease,” said Chandra Dhakal, the information officer at the Department of Livestock Service.