The implementation of vaccination programme under Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme (LHDCP) has effectively reduced the spread of livestock diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Brucellosis and Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD). The protective titres indicated by sero-monitoring are showing an increasing trend. The sero-surveillance values are also showing a decreasing trend indicating the effectiveness of the vaccination programme. The number of outbreaks of FMD have reduced from 132 in 2019 to 93 in 2024. During 2025, till June only 6 outbreaks of FMD has been reported. Similarly, the outbreaks of brucellosis decreased from 20 in 2019 to 5 in 2024. The incidences of LSD are currently reported active only in Maharashtra. Overall the occurrence of the disease is sporadic nature.

The details of disease outbreaks reported during the last three years in Sikkim are placed as Annexure-1.

The steps taken to ensure quality and availability of veterinary vaccines under LHDCP are outlined as under;

1. Under LHDCP scheme, 100% central assistance is provided to States/UTs for vaccination against Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Brucellosis, Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and Classical Swine Fever (CSF).
2. Procurement of Quality vaccines is done centrally and strengthening of cold chain infrastructure is done using the funding from LHDCP scheme.
3. Supply and usage of vaccines is monitored regularly to ensure that there is no shortage of vaccine.
4. Under Assistance to States for Control of Animal Disease (ASCAD) support is provided to State/UT for strengthening of Disease Diagnostic Laboratories and Biological Production Units (BPUs) for diagnosis and supplementing production of diagnostic kits/vaccines respectively.
5. Financial support is also provided to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)- National Institute of Foot and Mouth Disease (NIFMD)-Bhubaneswar, ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institutes (IVRI)-Bareilly, ICAR-IVRI-Bengaluru, ICAR- National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics (NIVEDI)-Bengaluru and Chaudhary Charan Singh National Institute of Animal Health-Baghpat for vaccine related activities including quality testing of vaccines as per set protocols /Indian Pharmacopoeia 2018.

Animal Husbandry is a State subject, and the establishment of veterinary facilities and recruitment of manpower falls under the purview of the respective State. As per the information received from the State of Sikkim, 50 Veterinary Officers are serving against sanctioned strength of 84 posts. Recently, State has notified 55 posts of Veterinary Officer for filling up against the vacant post. Six MVUs are operational in Sikkim under LHDCP to cater Veterinary care at farmers’ doorstep. Further, as per the report of National Commission on Agriculture there should be at least one veterinarian for every 5000 cattle units. The number of Veterinarians as per the Indian Veterinary Practioners’ Register (31.02.2024) is 87914. The livestock population in country is around 53.7 crore as per last census (20^th Livestock Census). Therefore, the ratio of livestock-to-veterinarian comes to around 6108:1.

Annexure-1

The details of disease outbreaks reported during the last three years in Sikkim
Sl. No.	Disease	Number of Outbreak
		2022	2023	2024
1	FMD	0	0	3
2	HS	1	0	0
3	LSD	0	20	10

 

This information was given by Union Minister of State, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Prof. S.P. Singh Baghel, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on 6th August, 2025.

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(Release ID: 2153130)