PESHAWAR: Health officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa say they are launching a vaccination campaign as new outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and ovine rinderpest (PPR) that has affected livestock in nearly half of the province's districts.

The two diseases remain endemic in Pakistani livestock population. In the current outbreak, the first cases of the highly infectious diseases were reported in late March. 

“We’ve already mobilized our regional teams to launch animal vaccination campaigns throughout the affected districts and other adjacent areas to protect health animals. And we will gear up the animal vaccination process,” Dr. Alam Zeb, director general at the provincial livestock and dairy development department told Arab News on Saturday.

According to Dr. Sayed Asad Ali Shah, epidemiologist at the livestock department, nearly half of the province's 35 districts have been affected.

"We have reports of FMD in cattle and PPR in goats and sheep from almost 14 districts, prompting our department to approve an emergency project and start vaccination of affected animals," he said, adding that vaccines are given to farmers free of charge.

According to Dr. Zeb said the provincial government had allocated Rs580 million this year to deal with cattle diseases in the province.

The amount, however, may not be enough to curb the disease as one dose of a locally produced FMD vaccine costs about Rs100. Imported and much more effective shots cost three times more.

"Our rough estimates show, KP has now a total of 33.5 million, including cattle, sheep, goats and horses," Zeb said.

This means that the current vaccination budget would cover only 15 percent of the vaccines needed.

If not contained, veterinarians fear, the outbreak may prove disastrous for the farmers who are already affected by an economic meltdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

"This is really a troubling situation at a time when COVID-19 haunts the nation," Dr. Noman Bhittani, a Lahore-based veterinary physician and surgeon, told Arab News, adding that PPR and FMD are the most contagious livestock diseases in Pakistan, which result in foreign bans on livestock imports from the country.

"The outbreak of cattle diseases will be catastrophic and inflicting losses on farmers if timely action isn’t taken to reverse its tides," he said.