The Sunday News
ABOUT 2,5 million of the country’s cattle are in danger of being affected by Foot and Mouth Disease amid reports that $20 million is needed to vaccinate the animals mostly in the southern parts of the country.
Addressing farmers at a stakeholders’ meeting in Bulawayo on Tuesday, the Veterinary Services Department director of field veterinary services, Dr Josphat Nyika, said 2,5 million FMD doses were needed to vaccinate about the same number of cattle in priority areas as well as in areas where the disease has been reported.
The 2,5 million cattle that are likely to be affected by the disease if measures to control it are not expedited make up close to half of the country’s herd which is estimated to be 5,2 million.
“We are supposed to be doing routine vaccinations in first priority vaccination areas after every four months but we have not been carrying out these for a long time due to shortage of vaccines.
“The animals in these areas are now overdue and susceptible to the disease. The routine vaccination areas are the ones near national parks. Now that we have another outbreak it becomes a problem,” he said.
He said about 2,5 million head of cattle needed to be vaccinated in the affected areas throughout the country.
“Each dose costs $2 so we need $20 million to carry out a full vaccination cycle which entails doing the initial vaccination, followed by a booster after 28 days then the vaccination will be done after every four months and this means in a year the animals have to be vaccinated four times,” Dr Nyika said.
According to the Veterinary Services Department’s national FMD’s latest update an outbreak of FMD was reported on 27 April 2014 in Masvingo Province’s Mwenezi District.
The outbreak started in a non-vaccination area and spread to the vaccination area, which is now a year overdue and 4 170 cases have been reported so far.
In Masvingo district 9 158 cases have been recorded with the whole southern half of the district being infected and the outbreak is reported to be spreading northwards towards Chirumhanzu and Gutu.
In Chiredzi the outbreak is occurring in both the vaccination and non-vaccination areas with 2 521 cases being recorded so far. The outbreak was first reported on 1 November 2014.
The FMD outbreak was also recorded in Zvishavane district on 30 August 2014 and is still ongoing with 485 cases being recorded while the disease was also detected in Shurugwi in November 2014 and is ongoing with 23 cases having been reported.
The latest outbreak was recorded in Matabeleland South province where 10 cases have been recorded.
In a bid to curb outbreaks of the disease the Veterinary Services Department has quarantined the movement of cattle from affected to unaffected areas.
Speaking at the same event Matabeleland North provincial veterinary officer Dr Polex Moyo said the department had not been carrying out routine FMD vaccinations for sometime but said it was fortunate that no cases had been recorded for some time.
Matabeleland North needs yearly consignments of 275 000 doses for vaccinating cattle in areas close to the Hwange National Park, 34 000 doses for Tsholotsho, an allocation of 50 000 doses for Lupane and 70 000 doses for Binga.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister responsible for livestock production, Cde Paddy Zhanda said Government was looking at various ways of curbing the disease.
“It’s unfortunate that the disease is being spread by some unscrupulous individuals who continue to defy cattle movement regulations set by the Veterinary Services Department.
“We are however, going to seek these perpetrators and find out their motive. The disease has adverse economic impact on the country so as Government we are going to move in quickly and see to it that it is controlled as soon as possible,” he said.
The first case of FMD in the country was clinically detected on 16 August 2000 in a cattle feedlot in south-western Zimbabwe. Prior to the outbreak, the country was known as an exporter of meat especially to the European market. The outbreaks have adversely affected the meat industry.
Emerging indications point to the fact that there are two sources of infection in the Zimbabwe outbreaks, both originating from the African buffalo species.
FMD is a severe, highly contagious viral disease of livestock with significant economic impact. The disease affects cattle and swine as well as sheep, goats, and other cloven-hoofed ruminants. All species of deer and antelope as well as elephant, and giraffe are susceptible to FMD.
In a susceptible population, morbidity approaches 100 percent. Intensively reared animals are more susceptible to the disease than traditional breeds. The disease is rarely fatal in adult animals but there is often high mortality in young animals due to myocarditis or by lack of milk when the dam is infected by the disease.
FMD is characterised by fever and blister-like sores on the tongue and lips, in the mouth, on the teats and between the hooves. The disease causes severe production losses and while most affected animals recover, the disease often leaves them debilitated.
