Dairy farmers in the State have called for vaccinating cattle against foot-and-mouth disease, which, they say, has been missed for three seasons because of COVID-19 lockdown.
“The vaccines are provided once every six months by the Centre and vaccination is done in February and October,” said Tamil Nadu Milk Producers’ Association general secretary K. Mohammed Ali.
After having missed the vaccination, the animals have been affected here and there and some deaths too have happened.
“A total of 15 lakh families depend on milk production so we can estimate that we would have a total of 35 lakh to 40 lakh head of cattle,” he added.
There are around 16.89 lakh head of cattle under the co-operative ambit, out of which, 16.45 lakh were cows and 44,000 were buffaloes.
Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Welfare Association’s M.G. Rajendran said vaccination was needed to prevent death of animals since despite the lockdown, families in rural areas had managed to survive due to milk supply. “The government must ensure proper temperature of vaccines be maintained so that the doses do not lose their potency. Many veterinary dispensaries in the State do not even have proper power supply,” he said and added that now was the time to vaccinate the animals.
The exercise is jointly conducted by Aavin and the Veterinary Department and once district collectors announce vaccination dates, cattle owners would take the milch animals to the vaccination centres, he said.
