Dimapur, August 2 (MExN): Amid the official declaration of the outbreak of Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) among bovine animals in Nagaland, the Ward 21 Welfare Committee Dimapur today urged the concerned authorities to enlighten public on the disease.
The outbreak of the LSD has stoked public concern about eating meat and the veterinary department and the Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC) should address these concerns promptly, stated a press release from the Committee.
In this connection, it requested the veterinary department to regularly monitor livestock health in collaboration with the competent authorities in order to detect and contain disease outbr eaks as soon as possible.
Routine inspections, post-mortem investigations, and laboratory testing should be conducted to ensure the security of meat entering the market, it said, maintaining that many butchers located in many colonies/localities under Dimapur Municipality are “still blank and continuing the business without any directions about the do's and don'ts from the concerned authorities.”
Strict policies and procedures should be developed to prevent the transfer of the LSD from animals to people through vaccination programme, bio-security protocols, and routine livestock health checks, which will prevent or lower the risk of transmission. The Committee further asked the relevant authorities, such as DMC and the Veterinary department to clarify as to whether beef consumption is safe as “viral videos and various news showing numerous cows with lumpy skin disease are circulating, leaving people confused and in the dark.”
As reported by The Morung Express earlier (June 18), with the another report of another outbreak of LSD in some states in India, viral images purportedly showing the infection spreading to humans have gone viral in Nagaland.
Similar rumours had spread before during previous outbreaks in India.
Two AH&VS doctors, concurring with experts elsewhere, then ruled out the link between LSD and humans and asserted that no such cases have been discovered to date, stating it is not zoonotic in nature.
According to a UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) statement during an outbreak in September 2017, while LSD can be deadly for cattle, it "does not affect humans."
