Farmers bear the brunt of LSD in Karnataka
As there is no treatment for Lumpy Skin Disease, the cow becomes useless for further milk
production leading to huge losses for a cattle owner.
Bangalore: Veterinary college, Bangalore report records the death of 23,676 cattle due to Lumpy
skin diseasein Karnataka in 2023 till September resulting in huge losses to farmers who are cattle
owners.
B.J. Pruthvi Gowda chairman of Karnataka Progressive Dairy Farmers Association, who himself is a
farmer asserted that the disease leads to losses among cattle owners, “Especially in regions like
Hubli-Dharwad, we have suffered a lot. Lot of cows have died due to this resulting in loss of milk
production. The problem is the lack of awareness about vaccination among the farmers.”
Dr. Darshan Banur, Associate Veterinary at PFA Wildlife Animal Hospital explained that when
farmers buy a cow, it is necessary to keep the cow for 10 days in quarantine, but they need to quick
start their milk production, hence, they only keep them for 2-3 days which makes the cow more
vulnerable to the disease, explains Dr. Darshan. “Farmers leave the cows free on the grazing land.
So, if any of the cow is affected with LSD other cows will too be infected with LSD. And awareness
about vaccination schedules is important among the farmers.”
“Once the cow is infected with Lumpy skin disease, it becomes useless for further production
because as being a viral disease there is no proper treatment for LSD, only antibiotics can help the
cow to recover and the farmers cannot afford the cost of treatment,” said Dr. Chandrashekhar,
Officer-in-charge of Diagnostics and Virology department at Institute of Animal Health and
Veterinary Biologicals.
He also said that as LSD reduces the milk production which becomes a huge loss for the farmers, the
only prevention to this disease is getting the cow vaccinated with goat pox vaccine before it is
infected with Lumpy Skin Disease.
