New Delhi: The Government of India has approved a comprehensive national health programme for the livestock, under which it has allocated Rs.13, 343 crores for five years (2019-24) just to ensure that the livestocks does not suffer from any mouth and foot diseases, an official statement said on Saturday.
The move comes amidst the rise in cases of diseases that get transferred from livestocks to human beings such as bird flu, swine flu among others.
Known as “National Animal Disease Control Programme for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis” has been approved by the Cabinet and an amount of Rs 2,683 crore is proposed for the Financial Year 2019-20.
“The programme envisages 100 per cent vaccination coverage of cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats and pigs at six months interval in the entire country. Further, animals will be identified using unique animal identification ear tags. The programme also includes de-worming of the targeted population of livestock twice a year as one of its activities,” the statement said.
It said that the programme also envisages 100 per cent vaccination coverage of female cattle and buffalo calves (4-8 months of age) once in a lifetime.
