Foot-&-mouth disease: Chandigarh launches 2nd round of vax drive

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 12

The second round of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccination campaign was launched under the National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries at Sarangpur village today.

Launching the vaccination campaign, Manish Kumar Lohan, Director, Animal Husbandry, said the aim of the programme was to control the FMD by 2025 with scheduled vaccination and its eventual eradication by 2030.

“This will increase domestic production and ultimately lead to an increase in export of milk and livestock products,” he said, adding that the disease was among the most serious diseases of animals in terms of economic impact and was globally recognised as a priority disease for control and eradication.

Dr Kanwarjit Bhangoo, Joint Director, Animal Husbandry, said the vaccination campaign would be completed in a month. “In this door-to-door campaign, vaccination of all large and small animals shall be done free of cost under the Covid guidelines,” he said. For the purpose of identification and record of vaccinated animals, all animals in Chandigarh had been tagged and livestock farmers had been issued a “Pashu Aadhaar” number, he said.

Over 50 livestock farmers from villages in Chandigarh participated in the programme.