Crops, livestock too hit by virus attacks: ICAR official

TIRUCHY: Crops and livestock are equally vulnerable to virus attacks along with human. In the crops the loss is up to 70 per cent of the yield and it turns to be a serious matter of concern among the cattle, said Tilak Raj Sharma, Deputy Director General, Crop and Horticulture Science (ICAR), New Delhi, here on Friday.

Presiding over the inaugural of a three-day national conference on Advancements in Global Virus Research Towards One Health organised by National Research Centre for Banana, (NRCB) Tiruchy, in association with Indian Virological Society, New Delhi, Sharma said, throughout history, virus infection has become devastating pandemic.

From small pox to seasonal flu and COVID created a very challenging situation before our medical knowledge and now, the nipah virus poses a threat to our health system. We developed effective vaccines through the diagnostic labs to eradicate small pox and even HIV/AIDS, but there are several more areas the virus had expanded in due course of time as along the development of science and technology, he said.

On par with threatening the humans, the viruses had intruded into the field of agriculture and animal health and fisheries sector. “There are several viruses infecting the crops especially, paddy, banana and other horticulture crops due to which up to 70 per cent of yield has been affected and these viruses affect the livestock too. The recent emerging lumpy skin disease in cattle has affected production while the H1N1 virus has affected the poultry sector,” he explained.

Organising secretary and Director NRCB R Selvarajan welcomed the gathering.