Milk output down 50,000 litres a day as lumpy skin disease batters Gujarat

Inoculation drive in full swing as over a million cattle get vaccinated

Milk production in Gujarat has taken a hit of around 50,000 litres per day due to the outbreak of viral infection Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) among the cattle. Though this accounts for a mere 0.25 per cent of the daily procurement of 20 million litres, officials in the state are scrambling to get cattle vaccinated.

“The impact on milk production has been minuscule at 50,000 litres per day as against a daily procurement of over 20 million litres. The outbreak is now being brought under control with all the major milk producing districts witnessing cattle vaccination,” said Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) Managing Director R S Sodhi.

A viral infection caused by Capripox virus, which is closely related to the goat pox virus, animals affected by LSD show signs of high fever, superficial lymph nodes, skin ulcers or scars, emaciation and reduced milk production. While the disease has a high fatality rate, officials in the Gujarat government’s animal husbandry department maintained that it is being brought under control through the inoculation drive.

In the last 3-4 months, more than 1,500 cattle casualties have been reported in Gujarat even as the state government’s inoculation drive is in full swing across the affected 20 districts of the total 33.

Government data has pegged the current inoculation at over one million healthy animals. According to Sodhi, major milk producing districts like Banaskantha and Kutch have seen the bulk of the drive along with the Saurashtra region.

Ahmedabad-based animal vaccine major Hester Biosciences recently won the government tender for supply of the vaccine for LSD, which has been re-purposed from its existing goat pox vaccine.

According to Rajiv Gandhi, founder, chief executive officer and managing director of Hester Biosciences, the company has so far supplied 50,000 vials of its re-purposed goat pox vaccine, of which 80 per cent has been supplied in Gujarat to the government, GCMMF, and other private dairies. Each vial can immunize 33 heads of cattle with each requiring a 3 ml dose. Each vial currently carries a standard pricing of Rs 600, resulting in an expenditure of roughly Rs 20 per cattle.

“The vaccine supply is being ramped up to 150,000 vials this month and being supplied to more states along with Gujarat. As demand arises, we will divert production of other vaccines at our manufacturing facility towards producing the re-purposed goat pox vaccine to battle LSD,” Gandhi told Business Standard.

On Tuesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel also visited Kutch, which has been the worst-hit district in terms of the number of cases. According to government data, Kutch district alone accounts for nearly 40,000 cases so far of the total 54,000 reported in Gujarat.

Meanwhile, on its part, the Gujarat government has so far deployed about 192 veterinary officials and 568 cattle observers, along with an additional 298 veterinary officials through mobile cattle hospitals across clusters of villages for treatment and vaccination.