Agartala: Nov 11: The Prime Minister of India was launched National Animal Disease Control Program on September 11, 2019. The state government has made all-out efforts to implement this programme. The program has been undertaken primarily to control cattle foot and mouth and brucellosis by 2025 and eradicate it by 2030.
Chief Secretary JS Mishra said this in a press conference organized by the Department of Livestock Development in Secretariate on Friday. Cattle foot and mouth rot is a highly contagious and viral disease. The symptoms of this disease include high temperature with rash on the mouth and throat and drooling. This disease occurs mainly in cows and bulls. As a result of this, the country incurs a financial loss of Rs 56 to 60 thousand crores every year. Vaccination is the most effective way to control this disease.
The disease can be controlled if cattle are vaccinated every six months. He also said that the first stage of vaccination of this disease in the state has started from September 2020. At this stage only cows and buffaloes are vaccinated. A total of 6,32,623 vaccinations have been carried out while goats, sheep and pigs have been covered. He said that vaccination of 3,22,710 cattle has been completed in the state so far.
Brucellosis on the other hand is a serious infectious disease. Especially pregnant cows are affected by this disease. Besides, manure used for breeding is affected by this disease. This disease causes 18 to 20 million meals a year to fail and cause huge economic losses. Calves that are aborted especially late in gestation as a result of contracting the disease die so initiatives have been taken to eliminate such. The only way to eradicate the disease is to vaccinate the calf before conception. Vaccination has started from last January 10. The vaccination target is 37,710 doses. So far 10,005 calves have been vaccinated. He said that the calves are being brought under this vaccination quickly.
He also said that 5800 pigs, 2900 goats, 8091 ducks, 24,269 families have been given for rearing chickens in the financial year 2022-23 through the Chief Minister’s Swanirbhar Parivar Yojana. Rs11.34 crore has been spent. Besides, it has been decided to appoint 17 professors on contractual basis for one year in College of Veterinary Science and HRK Nagar under Animal Development Department. It has also been decided to appoint 38 people on contractual basis for 11 months from among the assistants received by Tripura government in Animal Development Department. The special secretary of the department Shashi Kumar was also present in the organized press conference.
