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A PIB Backgrounder dated 22 August 2026 reviewed the National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP), launched in September 2019 to control and eradicate Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis through nationwide vaccination and surveillance.
Cumulative FMD vaccination under the programme has reached 147.16 crore doses benefiting 8.04 crore farmers; reported FMD outbreaks fell from 132 in 2019 to 40 in 2025 and Brucellosis outbreaks from 22 to 15 over the same period.
NADCP targets 100% FMD vaccination of all susceptible livestock twice a year, and a single lifetime Brucellosis vaccination for female bovine calves aged 4-8 months.
NADCP, the Livestock Health and Disease Control component and the Pashu Aushadhi initiative have been subsumed into one umbrella scheme, the Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme (LHDCP), whose budget outlay for 2026-27 is Rs 2,010 crore.
Over 39.00 crore livestock had been registered on the Bharat Pashudhan Portal by July 2026, each animal carrying a unique 12-digit Tag ID.
Control and eventual eradication of Foot and Mouth Disease and Brucellosis through 100% nationwide vaccination and sero-surveillance; launched September 2019 by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
Key: Biannual FMD mass vaccination of all susceptible livestock plus a one-time Brucellosis dose to female bovine calves aged 4-8 months; ear-tagging and data upload to Bharat Pashudhan; cold-chain procurement; outbreak investigation with virus isolation and typing; quarantine and check-post regulation of animal movement; minimum Rs 3 per dose to vaccinators. Since 2024 FMD vaccination has been extended to migratory pastoral sheep and goats in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Umbrella animal-health scheme into which NADCP, the earlier Livestock Health and Disease Control (LH and DC) component and the Pashu Aushadhi initiative have been subsumed for integrated implementation.
Key: Total budget outlay of Rs 2,010 crore for FY 2026-27; covers disease control, veterinary service delivery and animal healthcare under a single administrative head.
Create a unified digital database of India's livestock linking identity, breeding, nutrition and health records.
Key: Every animal receives a unique 12-digit Tag ID; FMD and Brucellosis vaccination events are logged against that ID. Over 39.00 crore animals registered by July 2026, enabling real-time monitoring and traceability.
Development and conservation of indigenous bovine breeds and genetic upgradation of the bovine population, raising milk production and productivity. Under implementation since December 2014 by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
Key: Establishes Gokul Grams as integrated cattle development centres; restructured in July 2021 with CCEA approval for 2021-22 to 2025-26 with an allocation of Rs 2,400 crore. RGM handles breed improvement while NADCP handles disease control - together they explain the bovine productivity gains cited in the backgrounder.
Central sector financing facility to crowd private investment into animal husbandry infrastructure; approved by the Union Cabinet on 24 June 2020 under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package.
Key: Initial corpus of about Rs 15,000 crore, revised to Rs 29,610 crore when the scheme was extended on 28 February 2024; up to 90% of project cost as bank loan with 3% interest subvention, backed by a Credit Guarantee Fund Trust corpus of Rs 750 crore. NADCP draws on it for veterinary vaccine and drug manufacturing capacity.
Strengthen India's animal health systems for pandemic preparedness and response; launched 2024.
Key: A US$ 25 million initiative supported by the G20 Pandemic Fund and implemented with the Asian Development Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank; funds genomic and environmental surveillance, laboratory upgrades and cross-border collaboration.
Coordinate and integrate all existing One Health activities across ministries, covering human, animal and environmental health together.
Key: Approved at the 21st meeting of the Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) on 7 July 2022 as a cross-ministerial effort.
Deliver last-mile veterinary care at the farmer's doorstep.
Key: 4,019 MVUs across 29 States and UTs, accessed through toll-free number 1962, having benefited 136 lakh farmers and treated 276 lakh animals; 39,810 Multi-Purpose Artificial Insemination Technicians in Rural India (MAITRIs) trained with financial support.
Sero-surveillance is a population-level assessment of antibody prevalence, used to estimate how much of a herd has been exposed to a disease and what immunity exists. Sero-monitoring is the longitudinal tracking of antibody levels over time in vaccinated animals, used to judge whether the vaccine is actually producing and sustaining protection. NADCP runs both, through pre- and post-vaccination sample testing. The distinction matters because a vaccination drive can look successful on dose counts and still fail on immunity. The NSP (non-structural protein) antibody figure is the key measure: purified FMD vaccines are built around structural viral proteins, so antibodies against non-structural proteins generally indicate exposure to live field virus rather than to the vaccine. A fall in NSP prevalence from 20.8% in 2019 to 8.1% in 2025 is therefore read as evidence that the virus is circulating less in the field - not merely that more animals were injected. FMD's three serotypes present in India are O (the most common and widespread, causing frequent outbreaks), A (highly variable, so vaccines must be closely matched to circulating strains) and Asia-1 (largely confined to South Asia and less widespread than type O).
Simple Analogy: Counting vaccine doses is like counting the number of umbrellas handed out. Sero-monitoring checks whether the umbrellas actually open. NSP prevalence checks whether people are still getting wet.
| Aspect | Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) | Brucellosis |
|---|---|---|
| Pathogen | Virus; serotypes O, A and Asia-1 in India | Bacterium Brucella abortus |
| Animals affected | Cloven-hoofed animals: cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs | Cattle and buffaloes (reproductive system) |
| Main economic damage | Lower milk yield, slower growth, poorer reproduction, reduced draught capacity, loss of export markets | Abortion and infertility, reduced milk and meat production |
| Vaccination schedule under NADCP | Mass vaccination of all susceptible livestock every six months | One-time lifetime dose to female bovine calves aged 4-8 months |
| Curative treatment for bovines | Control rests on vaccination and movement control | None available, so vaccination is the only sustainable measure |
| Zoonotic (transmits to humans) | Not a significant human disease | Yes; human cases often go undetected |
| Outbreaks reported | 132 in 2019 to 40 in 2025 | 22 in 2019 to 15 in 2025 |
Nodal department for NADCP, LHDCP, Rashtriya Gokul Mission, AHIDF and the Livestock Census; sits under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
ICAR institute for livestock disease surveillance, veterinary epidemiology and disease informatics; formerly the Project Directorate on Animal Disease Monitoring and Surveillance. Receives NADCP support for vaccine research, quality testing, sero-surveillance, disease modelling and state-wise sampling.
Sets the international standards against which countries claim freedom from animal diseases such as FMD - the benchmark the backgrounder names as a future priority. Founded on 25 January 1924 as the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) in response to a rinderpest panzootic; adopted the name World Organisation for Animal Health in 2003 and the abbreviation WOAH in May 2022. It has 183 Members.
Its brucellosis control model, cited in the backgrounder, stresses vaccination, safe waste disposal, biosecurity, public awareness and inter-departmental coordination. Founded in 1965 by Dr Verghese Kurien; declared an institution of national importance by the NDDB Act, 1987, which took effect on 12 October 1987. Planned and implemented Operation Flood from 1970 to 1996.
Approved the setting up of the National One Health Mission at its 21st meeting on 7 July 2022.
India's first Livestock Census is conducted; the exercise later becomes a quinquennial part of the agricultural statistics system.
The Office International des Epizooties, today the World Organisation for Animal Health, is created by international agreement after a rinderpest panzootic.
Rashtriya Gokul Mission begins, targeting indigenous breed conservation and genetic upgradation.
National Animal Disease Control Programme is launched to control and eradicate FMD and Brucellosis.
Total livestock counted at 535.78 million, of which 302.79 million are bovines.
Union Cabinet approves the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package.
PM-STIAC, at its 21st meeting, approves setting up the National One Health Mission.
The US$ 25 million Pandemic Fund Project on animal health security is launched with ADB, FAO and World Bank; FMD vaccination is extended to migratory pastoral sheep and goats.
The 21st Livestock Census is conducted, launched on 25 October 2024, covering 219 indigenous breeds across 16 species with mobile-based enumeration.
Bharat Pashudhan Portal crosses 39.00 crore registered livestock.
PIB Backgrounder publishes consolidated NADCP outcomes; LHDCP outlay for 2026-27 stands at Rs 2,010 crore.
NADCP is the animal-side pillar of One Health: earlier detection of animal disease reduces zoonotic spillover risk, and Brucellosis is itself zoonotic. The National One Health Mission, approved by PM-STIAC in July 2022, is the coordinating vehicle.
The Standard Veterinary Treatment Guidelines released under the Pandemic Fund Project promote rational medicine use and antimicrobial stewardship, feeding directly into the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance.
The Bharat Pashudhan Portal's 12-digit animal Tag ID is livestock's version of a unique identifier - the same design idea as unique IDs for people and land records, applied to traceability of vaccination and breeding.
Sanitary and phytosanitary barriers keep FMD-endemic countries out of many livestock-product markets, so disease control is trade policy as much as animal welfare.
The 20th Livestock Census (2019) supplies the denominator for every coverage claim; the 21st Census, conducted from October 2024 to February 2025, will reset that baseline.
Breed improvement and disease control are the two halves of the productivity story - RGM raises the genetic ceiling, NADCP stops disease from pulling actual yield below it.
GS Paper 3 > Economy > Agriculture and Allied Sectors; GS Paper 2 > Governance > Welfare Schemes
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Current Affairs
General Awareness > Schemes and Institutions
Animal husbandry schemes and livestock data appear regularly in UPSC Prelims and in SSC/Railway general awareness; FMD, Brucellosis and the Livestock Census are recurring anchors.
National Animal Disease Control Programme, launched September 2019 to control and eradicate FMD and Brucellosis through nationwide vaccination and surveillance.
A highly contagious viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals; serotypes O, A and Asia-1 circulate in India.
A zoonotic bacterial reproductive disease of cattle and buffaloes caused by Brucella abortus; no curative treatment exists in bovines.
Population-level measurement of antibody prevalence to estimate disease exposure and immunity.
Longitudinal tracking of antibody levels in vaccinated animals to judge whether protection is being achieved and sustained.
Prevalence of antibodies to non-structural proteins of the FMD virus, used as an indicator of exposure to live field virus rather than to vaccine; fell from 20.8% (2019) to 8.1% (2025).
The National Digital Livestock Mission database assigning each animal a unique 12-digit Tag ID and recording its vaccination history.
Multi-Purpose Artificial Insemination Technician in Rural India; 39,810 trained with financial support.
Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme, the umbrella scheme subsuming NADCP, the LH and DC component and Pashu Aushadhi; outlay Rs 2,010 crore for 2026-27.
An approach treating human, animal and environmental health as interdependent; India's National One Health Mission was approved by PM-STIAC on 7 July 2022.