Mystery disease hits cattle in Lingapalem mandal

Chintalapudi: An unknown disease has taken the lives of 14 cattle creating panic among the farmers in Kothapalli village of Lingapalem mandal in West Godavari district for the past three days.

According to farmers, the unknown disease has spread to buffaloes in the village on February 25. A farmer found that a buffalo suffering from the disease refused to eat anything.  He immediately took it to the nearby veterinary hospital at Lingapalem. The doctor who attended the buffalo could not detect the disease.

He suggested to the farmer who brought the buffalo to take it to the veterinary hospital in Gannavaram. But the buffalo died before it could be shifted to the Gannavaram hospital.  On the same day, three more buffaloes died of the unknown disease. The alarming situation caused panic among the farmers as they have spent Rs 10 lakh over the cattle.  

The veterinary doctors including expert doctors from Gannavaram Hospital reached Kothapalli village in Lingapalem mandal on Tuesday and tested the affected cattle. However, they could not come to a conclusion on the disease.

Meanwhile the death toll of the buffaloes reached 14 following the death of two more buffaloes on Wednesday. A team consisting of Joint Director of Animal Husbandry Vijaya Mohan and Deputy Director Govindu reached the village on Wednesday evening and examined the cattle. They conducted post-mortem on the dead buffaloes. 

The officers opined that the cattle might have consumed contaminated water in the village.  The blood samples from the affected buffaloes were collected by the officials. Joint Director Vijaya Mohan said that the samples of the blood along with the affected body portions of the dead buffaloes for which the post-mortem had been completed would be sent to the Veterinary Health Research Centre at Gannavaram in Krishna district.

The veterinary doctors have provided some treatment to the cattle as a precautionary measure. The farmers told the media that they suspect that the disease might have been caused to the buffaloes as they ate maize on the fields in the village that contained pesticides.