Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease of livestock with the significant economic impact.   The steps taken by the Union Government in this regard; are as under:

i. National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) was launched in 2019 with a provision of 100% central assistance to states and Union Territories for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccination.NADCP was included as a component under Livestock Health and Disease Control programme (LHDCP) scheme from 2021

2. Procurement and supply of the quality FMD vaccine for required FMD vaccination and ear tags for respective States and Union Territories is done centrally
3. Financial support is provided to States and Union Territories for procurement of vaccination accessories, strengthening of cold chain infrastructure and for awareness generation amongststakeholders
4. Financial support is provided to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)- National Institute of Foot and Mouth Disease (NIFMD)-Bhubaneswar, ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institutes (IVRI)-Bareilly, ICAR-IVRI-Bengaluru, ICAR-National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics (NIVEDI)-Bengaluru and Chaudhary Charan Singh National Institute of Animal Health-Baghpat for FMD related activities
5. Data related to registration of livestock using ear-tags and vaccination is uploaded on Bharat Pashudhan portal
6. As gathered from States/UTs, cumulative vaccination under National Animal Disease Control Programme till date (January, 2025) against FMD is 107.34 crore. The vaccinations done Round-wise is 16.91 crore, 24.18 crore, 24.23 crore and 24.84 crore for Rounds I, II, III and IV respectively. The Rounds V and VI are ongoing in various States/ UTs and till date 14.89 crore and 2.29 crore vaccinations have been done respectively.
7. On 17th August, 2024, a review of the measures was taken by the Department towards achieving the goal of FMD-Mukt Bharat. Besides, Regional review meetings are conducted twice with participation from all States and Union Territories to assess the progress of ongoing initiatives and programs including vaccination against FMD. These reviews serve as a platform for evaluating the implementation status, identifying challenges, and sharing best practices among stakeholders. Also, time to time various national level meetings like monsoon meet, conclaves are held by which status of FMD control is reviewed with States/ UTs.
8. The State/Union Territory wise released funds are at Annexure I. 
9. There is considerable reduction in FMD outbreaks over last few years, by over 60% from prior to launch of NADCP to 5 years of its implementation. The outbreaks now are sporadic in nature and there have been cases of FMD affecting limited number of animals
10. Sampling plans are shared timely with States and overall, the protective titres indicated by seromonitoring are showing an increasing trend. The serosurveillance values are also showing a decreasing trend. These indicate the effectiveness of the vaccination programme.

Under LHDCP, 100% assistance is provided to all States/Union Territory irrespective of region in the Country for control and eradication of FMD for activities as per operational guidelines of the concerned scheme ie. LHDCP. As far as FMD free zone is concerned, it is only an intermediate stage/measure aiming differentiated focus based on need and requirements. As of now, 09 states namely Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttarakhand identified to have special focus to make them FMD free. Adding more states for special focus to make them FMD free depends upon their need and requirement.