Vety identifies cause of cattle death
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, April 07 2018:
The unknown disease which recently claimed a large number of cattle at K Leihaoram village located close to Nongpok Sekmai of Thoubal district but under Kasom Khullen sub-division has been identified as Black Quarter.
According to a report submitted by the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Services Director to the Secretary of the same department, following media reports about the death of many cattle at K Leihaoram due to an unknown disease, a Veterinary team led by Dr S Upendro went to the village on April 4 .
The village authority of K Leihaoram informed the visiting team that the disease broke out in the last week of December with the death of 2/3 cattle (local breed) which were found in the nearby forest.
The outbreak spread amongst the cattle population of the village which were let loose in forest since the post harvest season.
The visiting team could find four carcasses at four different places in the adjoining hill slope of the village but they could not find any more ailing animals in the entire village and most of the animals were in the forest.
The team could find only 10 cattle in the village and they were healthy.
Nonetheless, the cattle were vaccinated against Black Quarter and Haemorrhagic Septicemia.
The team collected samples from the carcasses as well as from the healthy animals of the village.
The village authority reported that the outbreak had caused the mortality of 89 cattle heads out of about 400 cattle population of the village which had not been vaccinated against Black Quarter.
The disease was later confirmed to be Black Quarter through laboratory examinations of the clinical samples.
The source of infection or outbreak might be from introduction 4/5 unvaccinated cattle from neighbouring districts and trespassing of illegally imported cattle from Myanmar through the village, says the report.
Now the department has been planning to vaccinate all healthy animals of the village against Black Quarter with the help of the village authority as soon as the villagers gather their herd from the forest.
A ring vaccination programme would also be carried at the neighbouring villages extending up to Thoubal district, it added.