Caution over cattle from TN over disease

Palakkad: The outbreak of foot and mouth disease (kulambu rogam) in Tamil Nadu has caused concern in Kerala due to possibility of traders bringing cattle affected with the disease through checkposts in Palakkad.

As the major cattle markets in TN are shut down, including the main one in Pollachi from where the cattle are taken to different markets in Palakkad, the traders from TN are now directly bringing cattle to markets in Palakkad like Kuzhalmannam and Vaniyamkulam and these are seeing large number of cattle for sale brought in trucks with TN registration.

The traders from TN who reached the markets in Palakkad said that they were bringing cattle as the markets in TN were closed due to the disease.

Officials at Govida-puram Animal Husb-andry checkpost said they had intensified inspection of cattle from Palakkad and two additional live stock inspectors have been put in place.

But, it is learnt that most of the trucks carrying the cattle are reaching the district via other checkposts where there are no proper facilities for inspection by officials by Animal Husbandry. Most of the traders  reaching the markets here are also not having proper documents regarding the fitness of the cattle.

This is causing severe concerns as majority of the cattle brought from TN are taken to slaughter houses for meat.