Lumpy Skin Disease

• Bihar government sounded an alert and issued an advisory about the likely spread of lumpy skin disease (LSD), a viral illness that causes prolonged morbidity in cattle and buffaloes.
• In August 2019, when the first outbreak of LSD was reported from Odisha, five districts were grappling with an outbreak of exotic cattle pox.

Lumpy Skin Disease

• It is caused by the poxvirus Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV).

Symptoms:

• It appears as nodules of two to five-centimetre diameter all over the body, particularly around the head, neck, limbs, udder (mammary gland of female cattle) and genitals.
• The lumps gradually open up like large and deep wounds.

Spread:

• It spreads through mosquitoes, flies and ticks and also through saliva and contaminated water and food.

Affected Countries:

• LSD is endemic to Africa and parts of West Asia, where it was first discovered in 1929.
• In Southeast Asia the first case of LSD was reported in Bangladesh in July 2019.
• In India it was first reported from Mayurbhanj, Odisha in August 2019.