Lumpy skin disease returns, with 219 Indian districts on the risk list

A September alert under the National Animal Disease Referral Expert System has placed 219 districts in 28 states and Union Territories on the lumpy skin disease risk list. The disease, caused by a capripoxvirus related to sheep and goat pox, drove a national cattle outbreak in 2022. Cases fell in 2023 and 2024. They have returned after the monsoon.

The listed belt includes Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. CNBC-TV18 reported the NADRES map on 8 September. State counts already sit underneath it.

State tallies

Uttarakhand has 180 suspected cases across six districts. Samples went to the ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Bareilly. The state restricted livestock movement between districts and across borders and stepped up vaccination. In Uttar Pradesh, suspected cases were reported from villages in Meerut, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Saharanpur.

Himachal Pradesh, as of 6 September, counted about 2,500 infected animals and 90 deaths. Sirmaur had 2,064 infected cattle and 47 deaths. Una had 438 infected and 21 dead. Bilaspur, Mandi, Solan, Hamirpur and Chamba also reported cases. In Rajasthan, Bharatpur and Deeg together confirmed 969 infected cattle by late August, with 251 recovered and no deaths reported in that pair of districts. The state extended a vaccination drive to 8 September.

Parliament records from the fisheries and animal husbandry ministry show 29,444 cattle deaths attributed to the disease from 2023 through June 2026. A March 2025 study cited in the same reply put projected economic losses for 2022 and 2023 at Rs 20,254.407 crore. Vaccination totals listed in the annex run into the crores of doses across large states, including more than 3.6 crore animals in Uttar Pradesh and 3.8 crore in Bihar over that period.

Why the shots are not closing the file

India has relied since 2021-22 on annual mass vaccination with a heterologous goatpox vaccine based on the Uttarkashi strain. A field study posted in 2026, covering 8,930 cattle on 18 farms in five Rajasthan districts, put vaccine effectiveness at 21.7%. Disease occurred in 11.2% of vaccinated cattle and 14.3% of unvaccinated cattle. Protection appeared in Udaipur and Rajsamand and did not appear in Balotra and Hanumangarh.

That gap is the practical problem inside the NADRES list. Movement bans and fresh vaccination campaigns are the tools states are using this week. The 2022 wave already showed how fast the virus moves with monsoon insects and cattle transport. The current map of 219 districts is the official statement that those tools are being asked to work again, against a virus that has already circulated through vaccinated herds.