a day ago
1.45 lakh cows and buffaloes to be vaccinated against Foot-and-Mouth disease in Virudhunagar district
Vaccination of cows and buffaloes against Foot-and-Mouth disease(FMD) under National Cattle Disease Control programme in Virudhunagar district would be held from July 2 to July 22.
In a statement, Virudhunagar Collector N.O. Sukhaputra said that milk obtained from milch animals formed a major part of the food. Besides, the meat and their hair also helps the growth of the country's economy.
In this backdrop, FMD was attacking the milch animals, especially the hybrid breeds and cause substantial loss to the farmers's economy and production loss.
Hence, 1.45 lakh cows and buffaloes would be vaccinated against FMD to protect them.
The disease is caused by virus and it reduces the productivity among bulls and also hinders pregnancy among cows. It also causes death among young calves.
Though the death due to FMD is very less, the economic loss it causes is very significant.
The disease spreads during winter season. And it spreads through the cattle brought from FMD-infected areas. Unvaccinated animals and those animals which are not raised in hygienic sheds and failure to segregate the infected animals are major reasons for the spreading of the infection.
The contagious disease spreads through fodder, water, through the animals and human beings.
The virus would remain active for 15 days in the infected sheds and it would spread through air, milk, saliva and dung.
The infected animals would have symptoms like fever and lack of fodder in-take, less milk production. Saliva would continue to drip from their mouths.
Blisters would be found inside the mouth, on the tongue and the hoofs of the infected animals and would turn into injury.
Infected animals face infertility and anaemia. And, calves would die on consuming milk from the infected animals.
The free vaccination drive would be conducted by 51 teams at 82 animal husbandry pharmacies, six veterinary hospitals to benefit all the calves aged above four months also.
