After several vaccination campaigns in four districts as a preventive measure, the disease has once again resurfaced in 12 VDCs in Siraha after 10 months.

Khoret is a transmissible disease, transferred via virus in animals. The symptoms include high fever, loss of appetite, small blisters in mouth, legs, froth and unstable gait.

According to veterinarian Dhaniram Pandit of the Regional Veterinarian Disease Diagnosis Laboratory (RVDDL) in Biratnagar, 72,500 animals in Khotang, Pancthar, Udaypur, Siraha, Saptari, Sunsari, Morang, Ilam, and Jhapa are at risk of contracting the disease. Pandit stated that 1,705 animals had so far contracted the disease during the past nine months, killing 55 of them.

Pandit said while majority of the animals contracted the disease in Jhapa, most of the 55 dead animals were from Ilam and Panchthar.

The disease, however, came to the limelight as many as 16 times in Jhapa in the past 10 months. According to chief veterinarian of RVDDL Sanjaya Kumar Yadav, Jhapa was most infected of the disease as it happens to be the transit point from where animals from various districts were exported to India and Bangladesh.

Around 533 animals have been identified with 'Khoret' in Jhapa. Likewise, 242 animals have been suffering in five VDCs of Panchthar, of which 17 have already died. Another 302 have been identified in Siraha, among which five have died, leaving 24,900 animals prone to the risk of contracting the disease. Meanwhile, 16 of 178 animals with the disease had died in Ilam leaving 3,300 more animals prone to the disease. Likewise, in Morang, 16 of the 130 diseased animals had died and another 2,600 at risk, Pandit claimed. Similarly, the disease has been notified in 135 animals in Khotang, 88 in Saptari, and 90 in Saptari.

Meanwhile, Yadav said the production of milk in Ilam had gone down following the spread of the disease, even after taking prevention measures to further spread the disease.

Although there was no specific treatment for the disease, the blisters in the diseased animals could be cleansed with potassium mixed water or inject antibiotic to prevent further spread, said veterinarians, adding that the animals could be saved with timely medications.