Principal Secretary, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Development Department Mr. Vikas Pratap inaugrates the State level free vaccination drive at Gaushala, SAS Nagar (Mohali) to save the cows from lumpy skin disease.
On this occasion, he disclosed that today this campaign has been started across the state which will last for about 75 days and during this vaccination campaign, free vaccination of all the cattle in the state will be completed till April 30, 2023 so that the livestock can be kept safe.
He said that everyone who is related with livestock should give maximum support for the success of this campaign.Mr. Vikas Partap further divulged that government has set a target of vaccinating 25 lakh cattle in the state under this mega vaccination campaign for early protection of cattle from LSD, thus the government has airlifted 25 lakh doses of Goat Pox vaccine from government institute of Telangana.
Keeping in mind last year's situation when state faced loss of livestock due to LSD spread from neighbouring states, the principal secretary said that the state government has made foolproof strategy to ensure that this disease could not affect farming community, livestock and agri-subsidiary occupations in the state.
As per the decision of Group of Ministers, constituted for the prevention of LSD and to make future strategy, the state level mega vaccination campaign has been started today, which will last for about 75 days and free vaccination will be administered to all the cattle in the state till April 30, 2023.
He further said that 25 lakh vaccine doses, procured from the government institution “Telangana State Veterinary Biological and Research Institute, Hyderabad", have been stored at Punjab Veterinary Vaccine Institute, Ludhiana for dispatching to all districts of the state easily. Special care has been ensured to maintain the cold chain for the quality of the vaccine while transporting the vaccine from Telangana, he added.
Vikas Pratap, Principal Secretary, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Development informed that a Joint Director level officer has been appointed nodal officer at directorate level for effective implementation of the vaccination campaign, who will monitor day-to-day progress and maintain coordination with other field staff.
As per the instructions issued earlier, vaccination will be administered by 773 teams at the level of veterinary hospital/institution and special attention will be paid to maintain cold chain during vaccination.
He said that 77 Veterinary Officers were promoted as Senior Veterinary Officers/Assistant Directors in December 2022 to strengthen administrative structure of the department to carry out vaccination drive effectively, monitoring campaign and other departmental schemes at district/tehsil level across state.
Besides this, the recruitment process of 418 veterinary officers is being completed swiftly, and about 200 veterinary officers will be deployed after giving appointment letters this month to ensure that these officers could also contribute to the state level vaccination campaign.
Notably, the infectious virus, Lumpy Skin Disease had prevalent among cattle in the state on a large scale in July 2022. About 1.75 lakh cattle were affected across the state and about 18 thousand cattle were died during this period.
Notably, a Group of Ministers (GoM) comprising Finance Minister S. Harpal Singh Cheema, Agriculture Minister S. Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Animal Husbandry Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar, was formed in wake of the seriousness of LSD and to save the economy of the livestock farmers, which held regular meetings with the experts of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana and departmental officials and took required decisions to devise future strategies for the prevention of disease, animals treatment and prevention of future attack of the disease.
The government had airlifted 10.16 lakh doses at a cost of Rs.1.54 crore last year and 9.2 lakh eligible cattle were vaccinated free of cost, as a result of which a rescue of livestock became possible. Apart from this, Rs.1.34 crore was released to the districts for purchasing medicines for the treatment of the affected animals.
During this Sh. Sakatar Singh Bal Joint secretary Animal Husbandry Fisheries and dairy development Punjab,Smt. Kiran Sharma Additional Commissioner Municipal corporation Mohali,Dr Rampal Mittal Director Animal Husbandry Punja,Dr Shiv Kant Gupta deputy director animal Husbandry Mohali,Dr Ranbir Sharma Deputy director Headquarter, Dr Sonika Chhabra Additional director Mohali, Dr Rajesh Narang Senior Veterinary Officer Mohali, Veterinary Officers, Veterinary Inspectors & other staff members of Animal Husbandry dept. Mohali were also present.