The Drug Regulatory Authority has allowed two pharmaceutical companies to import vaccines for the rapidly spreading Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) among cattle.
The registration board of the drug regulatory body granted approval in a meeting on Tuesday.
As per details, two pharmaceutical companies of Karachi and Lahore have been allowed to import the vaccines for the skin infection that has ravaged cattle farms across the country.
“Huzaifa International has been allowed to import the doses from Turkey while Karachi’s Eros Pharma has been permitted to purchase the vaccine from Jordan,” Director-General (DG) Livestock Sindh, Nazeer Kalhoro, said.
He stressed the urgent need for vaccines, saying that the skin disease had affected 25,866 animals and killed 175 in the province so far.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi on Monday, Sindh Livestock Minister, Abdul Bari Pitafi, said that the viral disease had infected 16,000 cows in Karachi alone.
“The disease has been present in the world for the past 100 years, but its first case in Sindh was reported in November last year,” he said, hoping that the import of vaccine will normalize the situation.
Originally found in Africa, the lumpy skin disease, a viral infection of cattle, has spread to countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe.
With no effective strategy in place, the Sindh government has decided to shut down cattle markets across the province to minimize the spread of the virus.
