Blackleg outbreak contained

15 Nov, 2015 - 00:11 0 Views
Blackleg outbreak contained

The Sunday News

blackleg

Dumisani Nsingo , Senior Farming Reporter
AN outbreak of blackleg which claimed about 30 cattle in Hwange district since the first case was reported in September has been contained, an official said.

Department of Veterinary Services Hwange district veterinary officer Dr Lovemore Dube said cases of blackleg were reported in the eastern part of Hwange in Dete and Mabale areas at the end of September and beginning of October, with one farmer in Songwa village losing 10 animals on the same day.

“We conducted an investigation and later did a post-mortem of the carcasses in a bid to determine what might have led to the death of the animals. At first we strongly suspected that they might have been poisoned. It later came out that it was blackleg and upon further probing we found out that seldom do farmers in the area know what blackleg is thus they weren’t taking any preventative measures against the disease through vaccinating,” Dr Dube said.

The outbreak claimed 29 cattle while 14 were treated of the disease with 2 187 being vaccinated at the three dip tanks in the affected area. Dr Dube said following the outbreak, the Department of Veterinary Services embarked on an extensive sensitisation programme aimed at educating farmers about the disease.

“Following the outbreak we embarked on a sensitisation programme for farmers and their traditional leaders. We told farmers to form groupings and pool their finances to purchase vaccines, of which they did.

“They bought the vaccines and asked us to come and carry out the vaccination and we did it at three dip tanks that are in the area. We even taught them how to vaccinate and the number of cases reported has been reduced to zero,” he said.

Dr Dube said the blackleg outbreak was peculiar as it occurred during an unusual period.

Blackleg is a highly fatal disease of young cattle caused by the spore forming, rod shaped, gas producing bacteria Clostridium chauvoei. The spores of the organism can live in the soil for many years.

The bacteria enters the calf by ingestion and then gains entrance to the body through small punctures in the mucous membrane of the digestive tract.

Cattle that are on a high plane of nutrition, rapidly gaining weight and between six months and two years of age are most susceptible to the disease. The disease is not transmitted directly from sick animals to healthy animals by mere contact.

“Cattle in good and peak condition are susceptible to the disease but the story is different and the findings contradict this.

However, the first scenario is that the animals are not vaccinated; they are exposed to stress due to lack of feed, moving long distances to the nearest water point and are exposed to heat further affecting their immune system. Furthermore they eat the grass and soil with bacteria and thus they might be another serotype Clostridium species so we need to conduct further test of the carcasses at the laboratory,” Dr Dube said.

He said the Department of Veterinary Services was poor resources to embark on fully fledged disease control programmes.

“We should be doing more extension services, educating farmers about diseases which are prevalent in their areas as in this part of the country their livelihood is largely dependent on rearing livestock than cropping. Thus there is a need for us to prevent morbidity and mortality rates,” Dr Dube said.

He also said farmers in Hwange district were losing most of their livestock to carnivorous wild animals.

“In as much as farmers in this area would like to contribute to Zim Asset they are hitting a snag as 30 to 60 animals are being killed by predators every month. We are therefore appealing to our sister department, the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to conduct further studies or researches aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality by predators mostly lions and hyenas,” Dr Dube said.

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