Lumpy Skin Disease + Eidul Azha = A recipe for disaster?

Shahbaz Rasool may have got all of his 40 cows vaccinated against the fast-spreading Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) in the nick of time, but the danger is far from over. 'I will know for sure after 28 days if they are out of danger,' said the Gujrat-based dairy farmer.

He decided not to wait for the government to vaccinate his animals and bought the imported vaccine that is available from the market. A 100ml bottle is selling for Rs44,000 and 1ml is needed per head. It cost him Rs17,600 to vaccinate his 40 cows.

Livestock, the largest sub-sector in agriculture contributed 60.1 per cent to the agriculture value addition and 11.5pc to the GDP during the 2020-21 financial year, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey.

Rasool's is among the eight million families engaged in the livestock industry.

A cow infected by LSD in Punjab. Photo provided by Dr Zaka Ullah Pathan

Of the entire 63,684 tonnes of milk produced in 2021 (including goat and camel), 30,691 tonnes was produced by buffaloes and 18,686 tonnes by cows, with Punjab managing up to 90pc of the country's milk requirements.

'Some 95pc of small farmers,' a category Rasool places himself in, with a few dozen cows and buffaloes [small farmers are those with up to at the most 50 livestock], 'will be impacted the most,' said Rasool, adding that Pakistanis mostly consume buffalo milk, or at least think they do.

Shakir Umer Gujjar, president of the Dairy and Cattle Farmers' Association (DCFA), Pakistan, the largest dairy farmers' group said that 30pc of the cow milk is mixed and sold as buffalo milk at shops across Pakistan.

Rasool, the chief organiser of DCFA in Punjab, believes the LSD came to the province after spreading in Sindh province, and enveloped all 36 districts.

What is Lumpy Skin Disease

The vector-borne, transboundary disease found among cattle and water buffaloes, spreads primarily through biting insects such as mosquitoes and ticks, was first discovered among livestock in Zambia, in 1929.

A 100pc non-zoonotic disease, according to Dr Tahir Yaqub, spokesperson of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) in Lahore, it causes the cattle to suffer from 'high temperature, much discomfort and loss of milk production'.

'The nodes developed on the body look rather unsightly, and may carry pus in them if there is bacterial infection.' However, he said, it was fine to consume meat and milk of an infected animal if the former is cooked well and the latter "pasteurised properly'.

A cow infected by LSD in Punjab. Photo provided by Dr Zaka Ullah Pathan

According to Dr Zaka Ullah Pathan, a veterinarian based in Khairpur, Sindh, if a female cow is infected, its reproductive organs are badly affected. In addition, the milk...