Major Livestock & Poultry Diseases of Nepal + National Vaccination Programme

Livestock and poultry are central to Nepal's rural economy, contributing a large share of agricultural GDP and supporting most farming households. That value is repeatedly eroded by infectious disease: foot and mouth disease (FMD), peste des petits ruminants (PPR), haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS), black quarter (BQ), classical swine fever, Newcastle disease (ND) and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) together cause the heaviest recurring losses through deaths, abortions, lost milk and meat, movement bans and culling.

Animal health is the mandate of the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, working through provincial and local governments after federalisation. The legal backbone is the Animal Health and Livestock Services Act, 2055 (1998) and its Rules, 2056 (2000), which establish Nepal's competent veterinary authority and powers to declare, notify and control communicable animal diseases.

Surveillance is coordinated by the Veterinary Epidemiology Centre (VEC) and the animal-health directorate, which compile monthly epidemiological reports from district livestock service offices, plus specialised laboratories such as the FMD and Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) Investigation Laboratory. Control is delivered mainly through the National Livestock Disease Control Programme, which combines vaccination, quarantine and diagnostic support.

Foot and mouth disease, known in Nepali as khoret rog, is the single most economically important livestock disease in Nepal and is considered endemic. It is caused by a highly contagious RNA virus (family Picornaviridae) that infects cloven-hoofed animals — cattle, buffalo, pigs, sheep and goats. Classic signs are high fever, drooling, and blisters (vesicles) on the tongue, gums, muzzle, teats and between the hooves, causing lameness, sharp drops in milk and weight, and high death rates in young stock.

Multiple serotypes circulate in Nepal, principally O, A and Asia-1, which complicates vaccination because immunity to one serotype does not protect against others. Outbreak data underline the scale: investigations covering 2010 to 2015 recorded 1,333 affected livestock holdings, with an average of about 71 animals affected per outbreak and a case fatality of roughly 3.6%.

Nepal designated FMD a priority transboundary disease and adopted a National Control Strategic Plan around 2019 for phase-wise control, building on a national FMD control programme begun in 2012. Because Nepal does not manufacture FMD vaccine, the government imports it — on the order of 2.4 million doses in 2018/19 — and allocates supplies to provinces by disease risk, alongside serological monitoring of vaccinated animals.

Peste des petits ruminants disease in Nepal, sometimes called goat plague, is a viral disease of goats and sheep caused by a morbillivirus related to the rinderpest virus. It is one of the most feared diseases of Nepal's roughly 11-million-strong goat population because morbidity can approach 100% and mortality up to about 90% in naive flocks. Typical signs are sudden fever, oculo-nasal discharge, mouth ulcers, severe diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Nepal first reported PPR in 1994, and the disease has since become endemic with recurrent outbreaks, though frequency and severity have fallen with sustained vaccination. Control is guided by the National PPR Control Programme (2001) and later implementation guidelines, aligned with the global goal set by FAO and WOAH (formerly OIE) to eradicate PPR worldwide by 2030.

A key strength is that Nepal produces its own live-attenuated PPR vaccine, which gives long-lasting immunity from a single dose. Domestic PPR vaccine output rose steeply, reaching roughly 8 million doses in 2018/19, enabling ring vaccination around outbreaks and targeted mass campaigns in high-risk goat-raising districts.

Haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) is an acute, often fatal bacterial disease of cattle and especially water buffalo, caused by specific serotypes of Pasteurella multocida (B:2 in South Asia). It strikes fast during the monsoon, producing high fever, swollen throat and brisket, laboured breathing and death within hours to a couple of days, making it one of the deadliest cattle diseases in Nepal's Terai.

Black quarter (BQ), or blackleg, is caused by the spore-forming bacterium Clostridium chauvoei and mainly affects well-conditioned young cattle and buffalo. The spores survive for years in soil and, once activated in muscle, cause gas-filled, crackling swellings of the hindquarters, severe lameness, high fever and rapid death. Both HS and BQ were among the larger cattle-and-buffalo outbreaks logged by the VEC in recent years.

Both diseases are prevented rather than treated, and Nepal is self-reliant here. NVPL produces a combined HS-BQ vaccine for cattle and buffalo — around 650,000 doses in 2018/19 — and animals should be vaccinated roughly 15-20 days before the seasonal (pre-monsoon) risk period, with an annual booster.

Classical swine fever (CSF, or hog cholera) is the most serious viral disease of Nepal's pigs, causing fever, huddling, skin haemorrhages, nervous signs and high mortality. NVPL manufactures a CSF vaccine domestically — about 650,000 doses in 2018/19 — which underpins pig-sector control.

Newcastle disease (ND), locally called Ranikhet, is a highly contagious paramyxovirus infection and the leading killer in backyard and commercial poultry alike, blamed for over 7% of total poultry mortality; more than 90 outbreaks affecting over 74,000 birds were recorded in a single recent year. Nepal produces several Newcastle disease vaccines locally, including F1 (Hitchner B1), Lasota, R2B (Mukteswar) and the thermotolerant I-2 strain suited to village poultry, and in 2022 the Department of Drug Administration approved a new domestically made Ranikhet vaccine.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu), mainly H5N1, is the most feared poultry emergency because it is a zoonosis with pandemic potential. Nepal first detected HPAI in 2009 and has since seen more than 320 outbreaks, the loss of over 2.7 million birds, and its first human death in 2019. There is no routine poultry vaccination against HPAI in Nepal; control relies on stamping-out (culling), movement restrictions, disinfection and compensation, as seen in the 2026 Terai outbreak.

Nepal's most recent major HPAI episode began on 18 March 2026, when H5N1 was confirmed in Sundarharaicha-4 and Urlabari-8 of Morang district. Within about three weeks it had spread to 23 farms across four eastern and central districts — Sunsari (the hardest hit with 12 farms), Morang (8), Jhapa (2) and Chitwan (1).

As of 5 April 2026, containment had required culling 113,608 birds (chickens and ducks, mostly layers), destroying 211,867 eggs and 25,800 kg of feed. Investigators blamed poor biosecurity and contact with wild birds — trees harbouring wildlife, nearby wetlands, unregulated vehicle and visitor movement, and inadequate protective equipment.

The Department of Livestock Services coordinated the response across all three tiers of government, applying quarantine and disinfection zones. Affected farmers qualify for relief covering up to 75% of losses, assessed at market rates on the recommendation of the chief district officer.

State veterinary vaccine production in Nepal dates back to the early 1960s, when a Veterinary Investigation Laboratory was set up at Tripureshwor, Kathmandu; the facility evolved into today's National Vaccine Production Laboratory (NVPL). NVPL now manufactures at least 14 vaccine types for cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry, and the country is largely self-reliant in the vaccines needed for its national disease-control programme — with FMD the major exception.

In 2018/19, alongside HS-BQ, PPR and swine-fever vaccines, NVPL produced roughly 30 million doses of poultry vaccine, dominated by Newcastle disease (with the ND-F1 vaccine alone making up a large share), plus IBD, fowl pox and a canine rabies vaccine. Two private producers, Hester Biosciences Nepal and Biovac Nepal, are also registered for veterinary vaccine manufacture, and some Nepali-made poultry vaccines are now exported.

Despite this, domestic capacity does not meet total demand, especially in the fast-growing commercial poultry sector: Nepal still imports FMD vaccine and large volumes of poultry vaccine, with poultry-vaccine imports rising more than 300% over five years. Reviewers recommend strengthening laboratories for field-strain isolation and adopting newer vaccine technologies so Nepal can become fully self-reliant.

For farmers, the practical takeaway is that most of these diseases are preventable with timely vaccination, biosecurity and prompt reporting rather than treatment. Government and local veterinary services run scheduled campaigns — HS and BQ before the monsoon, PPR in goat-dense districts, and Newcastle disease for both commercial and backyard flocks — often free or subsidised through the National Livestock Disease Control Programme.

Reporting matters: FMD, PPR and avian influenza are notifiable, so suspected outbreaks should be reported immediately to the nearest veterinary or livestock service office, which triggers investigation, laboratory confirmation, ring vaccination or culling, and quarantine. Early reporting also unlocks compensation in stamping-out operations such as bird-flu culls.

On-farm prevention complements the state programme: keep new or sick animals in quarantine, disinfect sheds and equipment, control movement of people and vehicles, and follow the recommended vaccination calendar with annual boosters. These simple steps, plus using the correct vaccine for local serotypes, are the most cost-effective defence against Nepal's major livestock and poultry diseases.