Mumbai Police bans transportation of cattle to curb spread of lumpy skin disease

The Mumbai Police have prohibited the transportation of cattle in the city in order to prevent the spread of lumpy skin disease.The police issued an order to this effect on September 14 and it will remain in force till October 13, an official said on Sunday. Anybody found violating the order will be penalised, he said. The area under the Mumbai Police commissionerate is declared as "controlled area" for lumpy skin disease, the order said. Lumpy skin disease has so far claimed the lives of 126 cattle in 25 districts of Maharashtra. The first case of Lumpy Skin Disease was reported on August 4 in Chinawal village of Raver taluka of Jalgaon district.

The virus has been found only in cows and buffaloes. There is no danger to humans in using milk of animals that do not have the symptoms of the disease. Animals can be cured from the disease, however, the milk of such animals may get affected due to the virus. The infected cattle with Lumpy Skin Disease have been noticed in a total of 280 villages of Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Akola, Dhule, Pune, Latur, Aurangabad, Beed, Satara, Buldana, Amravati, Osmanabad, Kolhapur, Sangli, Yeotmal, Parbhani, Solapur, Washim, Nashik and Jalna