The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has announced that two companies from the country will be able to import the vaccines for the Lumpy Skin Disease in cattle.
Huzaifa International has been permitted to import the vaccine from Turkey, DRAP officials said while adding that Karachi’s Eros Pharma to import the vaccine from Jordan.
The disease is currently affecting thousands of cows across Pakistan. Sindh Government has announced declared an emergency across the province against the disease.
Meat sellers on the other hand staged a protest demonstration asking the authorities to lift the ban on cattle markets in the metropolis since the meat of slaughtered animals was safe for human consumption.
Livestock Minister Imdar Ali Pitafi told a press conference that the disease was prevalent only among cows, which were only 0.2 per cent of the cattle population in the province.
“Over 16,000 cows were affected due to Lumpy Skin Disease in Karachi alone,” he said adding that no human was so far reported to have been affected by the disease.
The minister said that the disease had been affecting animals across the globe for that last 100 years.
“We have declared an emergency and formed a task force to control the disease,” he said, adding that a letter regarding the emergency over the disease had been dispatched to the commissioners of Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Shaheed Benazirabad and Sukkur divisions.
Mr Pitafi recalled that the provincial government had demanded the federal government to notify the spread of the disease among cattle when the first case of was reported in November last year.
