National Veterinary Services (DVS) and other stakeholders have partnered to vaccinate 300,000 livestock in Isiolo County in the second phase of the campaign against Rift Valley Fever (RVF) that kicked off last Friday in a bid to save farmers from any losses to the disease.
According to a 2015 report by Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), the acute viral disease that mainly affects sheep, goats, cattle and camels causes mortality rates of up to 90 per cent in young calves and lambs while in adult cattle and small ruminants the main symptom is abortion, which can affect the majority of the herd or flock.
In the first phase, 195,000 livestock were vaccinated against the disease in the area according to DVS director, Dr. Obadiah Nyaga Njagi.
Njagi, during the kick off of the vaccination process at Shaab in Isiolo last week, said that the Regional Pastoral Livelihood Resilience Project have donated 2,080,000 vaccine in all 12 counties affected by the disease.
“No cases of the disease have been reported in the country for the last three weeks, which allowed the veterinary department to reopen all slaughtering places,” said Njagi.
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He said DVS will closely monitor livestock which cross from the neighbouring countries for grazing and watering so that our animals would not be affected.
The RPLRP national coordinator, Dr. Kisa Toroitich said that his organization would continue partnering with the Government to improve livelihood of the pastoral communities by digging boreholes and vaccinating animals in time of need.
Dr. Toroitich said that RPLRP has done restocking for locals after the long drought that killed over half of livestock in the area.
He said that four dams have been constructed and three boreholes dug and wananchi have a reason to smile, since they no longer require to travel for long distances with their livestocks.