In a major achievement, Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the first state in the country to have administered 1.58 crore vaccine doses to the cattle of the state for the Lumpy Virus disease in less than two months.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s initiative has also controlled the spread of the virus successfully, setting the state almost free of the virus, even though it continues to claim lives of cattle in different parts of the country.
It is worth mentioning here that Yogi formed Team-9 in the first week of August, taking a serious note of the symptoms of lumpy skin disease in cattle in other states, for effective monitoring of vaccination.
Senior nodal officers of the team visited Bareilly, Moradabad, Meerut, Saharanpur, Agra and Aligarh divisions and issued instructions regarding the vaccination campaign. To make the campaign meaningful, a hybrid model was adopted for online/offline training.
Besides, active cooperation of students of veterinary science colleges and private vaccination workers was taken in the vaccination campaign. First of all, the process of ring vaccination was started in 25 affected districts of Paschimanchal of the state. It was followed by creation of a 320-km-long and 10-km-wide vaccination belt between Pilibhit and Etawah to contain the spread of the virus from Paschimanchal (Western UP) to Central and Eastern UP.
A 155-km vaccination belt was also set up from Etawah to Auraiya. Initially, a target of 2 lakh vaccines per day was set, which was increased to 3-4 lakh.
The government deployed 2,000 teams and set up 89 dedicated cow medical centres in 26 districts to carry out 1.58 crore vaccinations in the state in less than two months.
Furthermore, priority was given to vaccination of cattle on inter-district and inter-state borders while vaccinating protected cattle in all cow shelters and cowsheds on a large scale. First the districts of Western Uttar Pradesh and then Central, Bundelkhand and finally Eastern Uttar Pradesh were taken up. The focus was on the border blocks of all the districts and the villages around the metropolitan cities.
