Lumpy Skin Disease in Cows in Jodhpur District: A Survey

Author: Hemu Choudhary

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Abstract

Cows are our religious and prestigious animal from centuries. In the ancient history, many battles were fought for the protection of cows. In Rajasthan, just after a wave of COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, a new pandemic like situation in cattle especially in cows hits all the 33 districts. After heavy rainfall in this monsoon a new disease outbreaks in the form of Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) spread mainly in cows. A random survey was carried out by Research and Development Cell of Govt. Girls College, Magra Punjala, Jodhpur (Rajasthan). For this purpose an open ended questionnaire was prepared and UG final year girls were trained for it. The survey was carried out in both rural and urban areas of Jodhpur district in the month of Oct-Nov. 2022. The cow bearers were categorised in three categories for the survey work – farmers; including people whose main income is from farming and cattle rearing side business having small population of cattle; commercial cattle rancher whose main income source is from dairy products and cowshed/ Goushala owners. Result shows that 56% cows were infected with this disease out of which 32.14% were dead due to late noticed by the owners/ improper treatment or having severe infection. Milch cows were mostly affected, as the result shows death of 48% milch cows were noticed out of the total deaths. Challenges of this study were to identify and work on a social problem that affected every person’s life and to carry out the survey without any financial support. It was also difficult to convey the people that we are not from the official sites to compensate for the cows death´s from LSD.

Keywords

Lumpy Skin Disease, status of cows, infection, death rate

Conclusion

Cows are our religious animal. A new pandemic like situation was found in all the 33 districts in Rajasthan, just after heavy rainfall in this monsoon season. Mulatu and Feyisa, 2018 also found that the disease incidences significantly increase with the onset of rainy and summer season, with the peak activity of the vectors in sub Saharan Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia. Death of cows on a large scale affects everyone’s spirit. The survey result shows that 56% cows were infected with this disease out of which 32.14% was dead due to late noticed by the owners/improper treatment or from severe infection. Milch cows were mostly affected, as the result shows death of 48% milch cows out of the total deaths, maybe due to poor immunity. Foreign breed was found to be more sensitive to LSD (36.36%) than Indian breed (31.11%). Animals of all ages are prone to LSD but calves are more susceptible (Al-Salihi, 2014), result matches as 62.5% calves were found infected. Many studies show that direct contact of animals has no role in transmission of virus (Magori-Cohen et al. 2012). Virus is secreted in milk, nasal secretions, saliva, blood and lacrymal secretions forming indirect source of infection for animals, sharing the same feeding and watering troughs (Ali et al., 2012), but not noticed by farmers/owners as have not been reported. The more deaths were noticed in the cows having symptoms of Gastro Intestinal Trouble (GIT) or respiratory problem. LSD causes economic losses in the form of lesser productivity (www.hindustantimes.com, 19 Sept., 2022) and increase in price of cows.

References

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How to cite this article

Hemu Choudhary (2023). Lumpy Skin Disease in Cows in Jodhpur District: A Survey. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(2): 371-374.