The government has this year produced only 19 lakh vaccines which could vaccinate about 5 per cent of about 8 crore cattle, the country now has, against anthrax infection that broke out in Sirajganj in mid-August.
Forty-three cows and 56 goats have so far died of the infection or have even been slaughtered after being infected. Five hundred and twenty cases of human infection, according to official figure, have also been reported.
The chairman of the veterinary department at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Abu Hadi Noor Ali Khan, said the outbreak could not be contained without adequate supply of anthrax vaccines.
‘Only the government produces anthrax vaccines and the vaccines produced so far this year can vaccinate less than 5 per cent of the cattle the country now has,’ Abu Hadi said.
The livestock services department web site says cattle needs to be administered two doses of vaccines a year to prevent anthrax infection.
‘There are eight crore cattle in the country,’ the director general of the livestock services department, Ashraf Ali, said.
As cattle need to be vaccinated twice a year, the country is in need of about 16 crore vaccines for protection from being infected with anthrax.
Ashraf said the Livestock Research Institution had produced about 19 lakh doses of anthrax vaccine this year. The department produced 36 lakh doses in 2009.
Ashraf, however, said the department had adequate number of vaccines to contain anthrax infection.
Reports and statistics reaching from the districts where the infection has broken indicate a severe shortage of anthrax vaccines in the areas.
The outbreak, which was confirmed in lab testing by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research on August 18 and made public the next day in Sirajganj, has now been reported from 13 districts.
Cutaneous anthrax, which is caused in human skin by Bacillus anthracis through direct contact with infected animals or consumption of meat of the cattle infected, has spread to 10 districts, according to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research.
The institute said 520 cases of anthrax infection had also been reported from the 10 districts. Unofficial figures, however, put the cases of human infection at 553 in 13 districts.
The institute officials said the recent outbreak of anthrax was the eighth in 13 months. Three were reported from Ghatail in Tangail and two each from Santhia in Pabna and Shahjadpur in Sirajganj.
In seven outbreaks of anthrax infection before the one detected on August 18, 99 people were infected in addition to a number of animals.
‘Sirajganj, Pabna and Tangail are part of the identified “endemic areas” in the context of anthrax as the regions have high density of animal population,’ said Abu Hadi.
According to the district livestock officer, Shafiqul Islam, there are about 14,61,730 cattle in Sirajganj. After the outbreak, officials vaccinated about 2,45,000 cattle and the office now has at its disposal a stock of about 40,000 vaccines. The upazila livestock offices have 50,000 more anthrax vaccines.
‘An additional stock of 1,00,000 vaccines will reach Sirajganj on Monday’ Shafiqul told New Age on Friday.
The livestock officer at Shahjadpur, Altaf Hossain, told New Age there were about 3,80,750 domestic animals in the upazila and the office had vaccinated about 1,05,000 cattle. The office now has a stock of 3,000 vaccines.
Senior scientific officer at Bangladesh Livestock Research Institution Hosne Ara told New Age the institution had increased the pace of vaccine production.
The institution, which earlier produced vaccines a day a week, is now working every weekday, she said. About 1 lakh vaccines are now produced a day.
The biggest anthrax outbreak so far this year has panicked people, forcing them to stop consuming meat. Farmers and meat traders are incurring huge losses because of the outbreak. Farmers are now worried about sales of cattle on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha.
The livestock subsector, according to the Bangladesh Economic Review 2009, now accounts for about 2.73 per cent of the gross domestic product, the total value of annual goods and services. Leather and leather goods account for 4.31 per cent of the total export earning.
