The Department of Livestock Services (DLS) is developing a project to eradicate by 2030 the goat plague or Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), a viral disease, which is a major cause of death of goats across the country.
“We are preparing a project to eradicate PPR by 2030 to save goats from the deadly disease”, Director General of DLS Dr Ajoy Kumar Roy told.
He said the project would initially be financed by the government from its own sources to protect goats and sheep, which could be a great help to many in rural areas in improving their livelihood and getting out of poverty.
The project, he said, would focus on taking more preventing measures besides controlling the diseases through vaccination.
Chief planner and livestock economist of DLS Dr Ruhul Amin Hawlader said the project proposal would be submitted to the higher authorities concerned in two months, but it would take two years to make the project running in full swing.
The country’s livestock population is nearly 5.90 crore, of which goats and sheep population is about 3.35 crore.
Principal Scientific Officer of Livestock Research Institute (LRI) Dr Hasan Imam said the country requires at least three crore doses PPR vaccine for treating the goats and sheep, but the current production capacity is around 50 lakh.
First recorded in Ivory Cost of West Africa in 1942, PPR is now a big threat to goat and sheep in many countries including in Bangladesh.
