By Medhavi Arora
World Service Disinformation Team, India
Misinformation about a viral disease that infects cattle is spreading on social media in India.
Lumpy skin disease has already infected over 2.4 million animals and has led to over 110,000 cattle deaths in India, according to latest data from the government.
India is the world's largest milk producer and has the world's largest cattle population, but the infection is threatening livelihoods of farmers in the country. Meanwhile, misinformation has made some people wary of consuming milk. We debunk three false claims about the disease.
Many viral social media posts falsely claim that milk has become unsafe for human consumption due to the spread of lumpy skin disease, and that drinking milk from an infected animal will lead to the development of a skin disease in humans as well. The posts are often accompanied by images of visibly diseased human bodies covered in lesions, meant to create fear.
"I have seen many such claims in social media groups of the dairy industry. Those who circulate such claims are not responsible - they share it as though it is information that only they possess," Poras Mehla, general secretary of an association of 6,000 dairy farmers in the northern Indian state of Haryana, told the BBC.
Dairy farmers are suffering due to the false claim. "I noticed this claim on social media and even heard that some people who believe it are...
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