April 19, 2012

At least 20 cattle had died of foot-and-mouth disease, with more affected as the viral disease continued spreading alarmingly in different areas of Kalaroa Upazila, Bangladesh, during the last one month.

Despite informing the livestock officials of the matter, they have so far failed to take any effective measure to check the disease, much to the worry of dairy farmers and cultivators, locals said.

The disease appeared in a small scale about a month ago but it is now spreading in an epidemic form in a number of villages including Batra, Singlal, Ekra, Gajna, Jhhokra, Raipur, Kashiadanga, Deara, Buita, Jugikhali, Murarikati and Tulshidanga in Kalaroa upazila.

Cattle owners blamed shortage of vaccine and lack of necessary measures by the livestock officials for failure to check the spread of the disease.

As the affected cattle develop symptoms like high temperature, salivation from the mouth, blister in tongue and around gum, they are unable to eat and later succumbed to the disease , cattle owners said.

"Two or three days after getting fever, my milch cow developed symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease and it refrained from taking food. Within 10 days, it died," said Abdur Razzak of Batra village.

Kalaroa Upazila Livestock Officer, Dr Swapon Kumar Roy, said, "Several teams of our department are now visiting the affected areas. They are giving advice and distributing medicines to help cattle owners to check the disease. There is no treatment for the disease although it can be prevented if vaccine is used before infection."

He, however, admitted that efforts to check the disease are hampered due to scarcity of the vaccine and its high price.

The foot-and-mouth disease is spreading alarmingly in Satkhira, a bordering district, as the disease affected cattle are being brought from India without any examination, said District Livestock Officer, Dr Shishir Kumar Sarkar.