Abstract:
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is a major infectious disease of cattle and buffaloes in Pakistan that causes heavy economic losses. Impact of FMD vaccination during the course of the disease outbreak has been assessed based on a field survey conducted in September-October, 2015. The sample size for the study was 90 livestock farmers from all the provincesof the country, and Azad Jamu and Kashmir (AJK); including 66 rural and 24 peri-urban farmers. The disease causesdecrease in milk productivity of the affected animals in the range of 60-70 percent during sickness and 40-50 percent after recovery from the disease. Along with this, deterioration in milk quality, increase in calving interval, animal weight loss, abortion cases, loss in drought power, distressedsales and mortalityare the losses caused by the disease. Recovery of sick animals due to vaccination was quite satisfactory, more than 90percent in both cows and buffaloes in rural,as well as in peri-urban livestock farming systems. Mean time durations for recovery from the disease in cow and buffaloes were 10 and 12 days in peri-urban areas, and 9 and 7 days in rural areas, respectively. The vaccination was very effective in controlling the disease, as only few farmers in Punjab and Balochsitan reported new cases of the disease after the vaccination. While, none of the farmers in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwaand AJK reported outbreak at their farms. Due to vaccination, reductionin severity of the disease was also reported in the affected animals. It is concluded that FMD vaccination of the animals in the face of outbreak is useful to curtail further spread of the viruses to healthy animals,andalsoresults in early recovery of the diseased animals.
