Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu has launched the world’s first DIVA market vaccine for lumpy skin disease (LSD), which wreaked a havoc in the country by causing deaths of over two lakh cattle, at a conference at Vijayawada on Wednesday. Developed by Biovet, a subsidiary of Bharat Biotech, BIOLUMPIVAXIN addresses a serious challenge the animal husbandry sector faces, offering a great relief to farmers.
Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a transboundary animal disease that has gained significant attention in India due to its severe impact on cattle health and the dairy industry. The disease is characterised by the development of skin nodules across the body, fever, swollen lymph nodes, decreased milk yield and difficulty in movement.
BIOLUMPIVAXIN is a novel indigenous live-attenuated marker vaccine developed using the LSD virus/Ranchi/2019 vaccine strain from Indian Council of Agriculture Research-National Research Centre on Equines (ICAR-NRCE), Hisar, in collaboration with Biovet.
Appreciating Biovet for developing the made-in-India vaccine, Naidu called for measures to effective distribution of the vaccine. “Besides helping the State to achieve the target of 20 per cent in the livestock sector, it will promote the long-term sustainability of the dairy industry,” he said.
“The DIVA Marker LSD vaccine is an important step toward eradicating LSD,” Krishna Ella, Founder of Biovet and Executive Chairman of Bharat Biotech, said.
“Livestock, alongside our human resources, represents one of the nation’s greatest assets, contributing significantly to our economy and overall prosperity. We carry a deep responsibility to protect this sector, ensure the well-being of the dairy industry, and advance the nation’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision,” he said.
“The quality, safety, and efficacy of BIOLUMPIVAXIN® have been extensively tested at Indian Council of Agriculture Research-Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) and the Indian Council of Agriculture Research-National Research Centre on Equines (ICAR-NRCE) ensuring it meets the highest global standards,” he said.
Vaccination has proven to be the most effective strategy for controlling LSD virus, particularly with homologous vaccines.
Biovet said it can produce 500 million doses of the vaccine from its production facilities in Bengaluru, ensuring sustainable supplies.
According to national statistics by the animal husbandry department, there have been two major outbreaks of LSD in India, the first in 2019 and the second in 2022. During these outbreaks about two lakh cattle succumbed, and millions more cattle have lost their milk production capabilities.
When a livestock contracts LSD, it suffers from high fever and painful skin nodules that can prove fatal and contaminate milk production. The infection drastically reduces milk yield, posing a serious threat to large-scale dairies and disrupting the broader milk supply chain.
During the 2022 LSD outbreak in India, morbidity rates reached up to 80 per cent with case fatality rates as high as 67 per cent, across states such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Jammu & Kashmir.
This caused an estimated economic loss of over ₹18,337.76 crore and a 26 per cent decline in milk production, significantly harming the dairy industry and the rural economy.
In India, LSD has emerged as a major threat to dairy productivity, impacting millions of small-scale marginal farmers.