Muhammad Havid, a Peshawar livestock dealer, said profits plummeted as the virus wiped out animals purchased for sale prior to the Eid festival.
“Every year, I buy Rs 50 million (£ 200,000) worth of animals from Punjab and sell them here on the market for sale of sacrificial animals. Of the 5,000 animals on my farm More than 500 have developed Lumpy skin disease and 35 have died. The cost of vaccination is too high, “he said. Telegraph..
Authorities tried to reassure consumers that the meat of infected animals could still be eaten if properly cooked, but farmers said customers refused to buy livestock. Milk prices for infected herds have also fallen sharply.
Rafiq Shah, a farmer with a herd of 100 cows, said:
The disease is transmitted by blood-sucking insects and mites, and health officials fear that it will spread rapidly to animal markets.
Epidemic “Under the Radar”
Dr. Pipbeard, an expert on the disease at the World Organization for Animal Health, said: Some farmers I talked to say they never actually return to their original place. “
Dr. Beard, who runs the research team at the Pirbright Institute, said:
The disease has long occurred in Africa and the southern part of the Middle East, but has spread rapidly over the last decade or so to Turkey, Russia, Southern Europe, and throughout Asia.
“It was a fad, and it was under a radar,” Dr. Beard said.
She added that researchers are investigating the possibility that the Arab Spring cataclysm contributed to the spread of the disease as veterinary services and controls collapsed.
The disease is caused by a highly specific and stable DNA virus. In other words, it is unlikely to mutate and infect humans.
Professor James Wood, director of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge, said Lumpy skin disease is “a highly feared cross-border livestock disease,” but it is not a danger to human health. Stated.
“This is a poxvirus, but there are no’relatives’ that infect humans,” he said.
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