Dhaka: Bangladeshi veterinary scientists has invented the preventive vaccine for cattle’s foot and mouth disease (FMD), a major viral ailment that causes the country an estimated loss of Tk 10,000 crore annually.

‘Our veterinary scientists have invented the master-seed of anti-FMD vaccine ... it is a landmark achievement for the livestock sector,’ state minister for Livestock Narayan Chandra Chanda told BSS.

He added that the invention was now expected to drastically reduce the cattle mortality rate as the contagious disease often claims lives of 51 percent of adult cattle heads and 70 percent calves, incurring a loss estimated to be as high as 10,000 crore every year.

Chanda’s comments came as the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) formally handed him over the maser-seed of the anti-FMD vaccine at his office.

The state minister said until now the country had to depend on costly imported FMD vaccines while the locally produced preventive medicine would save at least another Taka 1,000 crore of the national exchequers.

‘The per dose of imported vaccine costs an amount ranged between Tk 150 and 200 while the BLRI invented vaccine would cost only Tk 20,’ Chanda said.

The junior minister, however, said the limited production capacity remained to be a major obstacle for introducing the locally invented FMD vaccines all over the country but ‘steps would be taken to enhance it’.

BLRI’s FMD research project chief Mohammad Giasuddin said outbreak of the disease in recent years appeared acute, exposing the livestock sector to a major challenge.’ The imported FMD vaccine appeared to have lost largely its resistance capacity ... but the BLRI-invented vaccine would be more effective as it would be produced from local viruses that inflict the cattle,’ he said.

According official statistics, the number of four types of cattle — goat, cow, buffalo and sheep — is over 5 crore while the FMD inflicts 35 to 50 percent cows, 20 to 30 percent buffalos and 10 to 20 percent goats and sheep annually.

‘The cattle heads need to be vaccinated at least twice a year requiring 10 crore doses of anti-FMD vaccine but the existing infrastructures would now allow us to produce as high as 12 lakh doses,’ director general of livestock services Ajoy Kumar Roy told BSS.

BLRI director general Talukder Nurunnahar was present at the ceremony, also joined by fisheries and livestock secretary Maksudul Hasan Khan.

According to veterinarians FMD is a severe, highly contagious viral disease of cloven-hooved animals while it spreads quickly if not controlled. They say seven types of viruses cause the disease while three of those types existed in Bangladesh while the BLRI scientists developed anti-dotes for all those three types as immunity to one type does not protect an animal against other types.