Times of India: Thiruvananthapuram:
Wednesday, April 09, 2014.
The outbreak
of foot and mouth disease that spelt doom for cattle and farmers in 2013-14 was
the worst attack recorded in the state during the past decade.
Documents
procured by TOI through RTI reveal that the livestock numbering 64,260 were
infected and 6,100 deaths were reported in 2013.
The magnitude
of attack looks enormous when considering the fact that the second maximum
number of animals that got affected by FMD was 17,688, which was recorded in
2009.
Ever since
the animal husbandry department began vaccination programme in 2005, the number
of animals affected by FMD has always ranged between 200- 1,000, not even
exceeding 2,000. The lowest number of animals that got infected was recorded in
2012 when 287 animals were found infected with FMD.
The rise in
the number of FMD cases in 2013 has always been attributed to the inflow of
diseased cattle from neighbouring states.
However, data
show that close to one lakh animals were found infected with FMD despite the
vaccination drive covering a total of 12 .6 lakh cattle across the state.
Interestingly,
no vaccination drive was conducted for goats, sheeps and pigs for the last
three years. While fatality was pretty low in 2011 and 2012, the decision to
exclude goats and pigs from vaccination programme backfired in 2013. Almost
2,169 goats were infected in 2013 while 930 pigs were infected. None of them
were vaccinated. An official who was in-charge of animal disease control
project (ADCP) during the FMD outbreak said that goats and pigs were excluded
as per the direction of government of India.
"We
received dosage only for covering the cattle and buffalo. Goats, sheeps and
pigs had to be excluded since the Union government had directed us to do
that," the official said.
Experts said
that goats and sheeps act as active carriers of virus, which would have
resulted in the spread of disease.
Questions are
also raised over why the animals got infected despite carrying out extensive
vaccination drive. While RTI information says that Raksha Ovac vaccine was used
for vaccination, senior officials admit that there have been supplies of
vaccines from private firms as well.
"We do
not buy vaccines directly as we receive it from the Centre. There have been
instances where we received vaccines that were produced by private companies
and not just by Indian Immunological Limited," the official added. Sources
said that although it is recommended to destroy the vaccine vials after a day's
drive, most often the vials were brought back to veterinary hospitals that
resulted in deterioration of quality.
FMD is caused
by picorna virus. There are three serotypes, O, A and Asia - 1. Another type C
has not surfaced in India for the past 20 years. ADCP had confirmed that the
recent FMD outbreak was caused by the O serotype.
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