Lumpy Skin Disease

• Rising cases of lumpy skin disease (LSD) in livestock of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal were reported recently.

ABOUT LUMPY SKIN DISEASE

• It is an acute to chronic, highly infectious viral disease that affects cattle.
• It is caused by the lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), which belongs to the genus capripoxvirus, a part of the poxviridae family (smallpox and monkeypox viruses are also a part of the same family).
• The first reported outbreak of LSD occurred in Zambia in 1929.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that its mortality rate is less than 10%.
• Symptoms include –fever, nodules on the skin, mucous membranes and internal organs, emaciation, enlarged lymph nodes, oedema of the skin, and sometimes death.
• It is not transmissible to humans.
• Transmission: LSD is primarily spread between animals through the bite of vectors, such as mosquitoes and flies.
  • Indirectly it can spread from contaminated equipment, movement of infected animals
• Treatment:
  • It has no direct antiviral treatment.
  • There are no specific antiviral drugs for treating LSD, and treatment primarily involves supportive care for the affected animals by use of antibiotics, painkillers, and wound care sprays.
  • As there’s no treatment, vaccines are used to control disease transmission

Other info

• Lumpi-ProVacInd is a live attenuated vaccine developed jointly by ICAR’s National Research Centre on Equines and the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, which is targeted to protect cattle against the LSD virus, and provides 100% protection.
• It is expected to be commercially launched soon.