These ailing cows have only options: Being in isolation or facing massacre

Kolar, Sep 9: There is alarm over the outbreak of Brucellosis disease in Kolar district following the detection of Brucella abortus bacterium in 998 cattle, including 258 cows. Symptoms of Brucellosis have been found in animals at Rakshith Farm owned by Kolar MLA Varthur R Prakash.

Also known as 'bangs disease' and `contagious abortion', Brucellosis spreads from the vaginal discharge of an infected cow or from an aborted foetus. It's said to have no treatment and the disease poses a major risk as milk consumed from the infected cows can cause undulant fever among humans.

Animal husbandry department's deputy director (Kolar) S Channakeshava said: “We have been screening the animals for Brucellosis for the past one year and 258 cows tested positive. We have ordered culling of these cows and directed farm owners to bury the carcasses deep in the soil to prevent contamination.”

Meanwhile, Animal Husbandry Minister A Manju said that there was no need to cull the brucellosis infected cattle in the diary. Manju told media persons in Bengaluru that an 11-member expert committee constituted by the department had opined that there was no need to cull over 900 animals that had tested positive for brucellosis, as the disease was endemic.

The committee has in turn advised that the infected animals be quarantined in an isolated area in the farm. The animals will be kept in isolation for at least three months, before another round of tests are conducted. If they test positive again, then they will be continued to be kept in isolation. The committee has recommended that the animals should not be used for breeding purposes and taken out of the farm.

The farm, which commenced operations a year ago at Begli village on the outskirts of Kolar (about 70km from Bengaluru), has over 2,500 cross-bred cows brought from Maharashtra by Prakash. Though animal husbandry staff detected Brucellosis several months ago, they reportedly did not raise a red flag and the issue was kept under wraps for "observation and scientific analysis".

In the meantime, according to sources in the animal husbandry department, some cows were either sold to farmers in the region or sent to slaughter houses.

The issue snowballed into a controversy after some political activists alleged that nearly 7,000 litres of infected milk were supplied to the local milk producers' cooperative society from Rakshith Farm. They also alleged that Prakash was trying to sell the infected cows to farmers.

Dr T Jayaram, senior deputy director of the department, said Brucellosis disease is a zoonotic disease, is animal borne and can be easily transmitted to humans who come in close contact with affected animals. The affected animal would develop various disorders which results in abortion twice in a row and after two abortions though the animal looks good, it would have traces of the bacteria and spread it to other animals. Any human who comes in close contact with the animal will develop various health disorders, including high fever, joint pain and impotency.