6 April, 2009 - An outbreak of haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS), a cattle disease, killed 15 cattle in three weeks in Balung and Thasa villages of Laja gewog, Dagana.
“All the households lost at least a cattle to the disease,” said a farmer from Balung, who calls the disease ‘nyencha’.
Laja gup Gembo told Kuensel that farmers in the 150 households of the gewog lost numerous cattle to nyencha in the last three years. “The animals die suddenly and people can’t consume the meat, as it swells after death,” said the gup. However, livestock officials said that the recent HS outbreak was the first in the gewog. “What they call nyencha is black quarter (BQ), not HS,” said the livestock extension officer in Laja gewog, Bhim Bahadur Subba.
However, livestock officials said that the disease has been contained in the gewog, as of now, after the cattle were vaccinated and antibiotics given. Bhim Bahadur Subba said only one cattle could be saved since the outbreak because people, instead of informing livestock officials, had consumed the carcasses. “But, to prevent such outbreaks again, all the cattle were vaccinated against the disease,” he said. “People were alerted not to consume the carcasses.”
By Tshering Namgay
