Lumpy skin disease is the latest disaster to be inflicted upon Egypt's hard pressed farmers, reports Reem Leila "I don't know what are we going to eat now; chickens have bird flu, cattle suffer from lumpy skin disease and fish come from polluted waters," said housewife Azza Mohamed, as she shopped at a Cairo market. Over the past four months lumpy skin disease (LSD) has killed at least 12,000 animals, or 20 per cent of the area's entire livestock, in Beni Sweif, 120km south of Cairo. An estimated 60 per cent of the remaining cattle are infected. There have been more than 15 outbreaks of LSD in other governorates, including Al-Beheira, Alexandria, Giza, Fayoum, Minya, Al-Wadi Al-Gedid and Menoufiya. Altogether, 12 per cent of Egypt's 3.75 million cattle have died, causing losses estimated at LE60 million. LSD occurs in sub-Saharan Africa, Kuwait and Madagascar. It came to Egypt in 1988, but not in an endemic form, and subsequently spread to Israel, where it has since been eradicated. According to Talib Murad Ali, the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) regional officer for animal health, countries like Egypt are likely to be hard hit economically by the spread of LSD and the panic it causes. More than 300,000 suspect cows are still awaiting tests. Grazing land is scarce in the Middle East and the region is vulnerable to animal diseases because it imports so many live animals, often without strict regulation. "It is commonly said that every piece of meat on a kebab skewer comes from a different country," says Ali. LSD, an acute viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes, affects only cattle. The disease starts, says Ahmed Tawfiq, head of the General Organisation of Veterinary Services, with a lack of appetite and high temperature; later, nasal and eye secretions occur and lymph nodes swell. In later stages nodules appear on the skin which, if left untreated, rupture to form ulcers. Once the ulcers are present the cow is in danger of contracting secondary bacterial infections. "No treatment is available for lumpy skin disease," says Tawfiq. "Antibiotics are used to prevent sick animals from contracting secondary infections." The only way to save infected livestock is to quarantine the sick animal in a fly-free environment to prevent the spread of the disease. All in-contact animals must be vaccinated, and the carcasses of animals that have died from LSD should be buried or burnt. The most effective way to contain the disease is to eliminate the virus transmitter. Swamps and marshy areas in which mosquitoes proliferate should be drained, and oil can be added to water pools to discourage mosquitoes from breeding. Routine vaccination of cattle strengthens their resistance to the disease but it does not guarantee immunity in animals that are over-stressed or inadequately fed. "But no cow should be denied vaccination, which is offered for free to all farmers and cattle breeders," stresses Tawfiq. Human beings cannot contract the disease by touching infected cows, says Mounir Mohamed Abdel-Halim, professor of contagious diseases at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Cairo University. But cows that have been vaccinated and which recover should not, he warns, be slaughtered until at least 18 days have passed since the end of medical treatment, otherwise the meat is "contaminated by the medication given to the animal". Also, milk from recovered cows should be discarded for six months until it becomes safe for consumption. Despite official claims that the infection is being contained and new outbreaks of the disease are dwindling, representatives of the livestock industry have accused the government of ignoring the problem until it had spun out of control. Only livestock breeders who are members of the Cattle Insurance Fund will be compensated for their losses, though Tawfiq says levels of compensation have yet to be decided.
